There is no consensus of opinion on the Election Commission (EC) proposal to extend postal voting rights to doctors, nurses and reporters in the next general election.

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 tony pua 01 DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua (right) agreed that those assigned to work away from their constituencies should be given the opportunity to vote.

However, he immediately clarified that the DAP strongly objects to the nature of postal voting in Malaysia.

        

“We want postal voting to be scrapped, but if the EC is going to continue with it, then it should be evenly applied to all Malaysians who are stationed out of town,” he said.

Criticising the lack of transparency in the procedure, he said the current system “is very different from the postal voting that we have in mind”.

“We are not talking about outstation voters having a chance to vote. Here, it is a separate voting administration where checking is done by military superiors,” Pua clarified.

PKR information chief Latheefa Koya shot down the EC’s suggestion, saying that postal voting “does not guarantee free elections”.

“We have no idea how the votes are being collected from the police or even the military groups currently. They’re not listening to what people are asking for,” she said.

Latheefa agreed with PAS election director Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman, who said in a HarakahDaily report today that extending postal voting would create more room for manipulation.

As one alternative to postal voting, she urged the EC to set up voting booths in hospitals.

‘Make voting easier

’

According to yesterday’s report in Utusan Malaysia , EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the need to extend postal voting rights to those working in “important service sectors” is being evaluated.

Currently, only military personnel and police officers are allowed to cast their votes by mail. The EC website says that overseas students may also apply for postal voting rights.

mic info chief interview 180909 p kamalanathan 001 MIC information chief P Kamalanathan (left) expressed support, saying that Malaysians studying abroad should be able to cast their votes easily.

Claiming that students are not voting because there was no proper system and no information, he nonetheless declared that postal voting was not the source of the problem.

“People who suggest that postal voting should be scrapped are losers. No one should be complaining. No one can force anyone to vote,” he said.

Syed Ibrahim Alhabshi, chairperson of Malaysian for Free and Fair Elections, does not see the need for doctors, nurses and reporters to vote via mail, saying that only students, ambassadors and military personnel stationed abroad should be allowed to do so.

“It seems like we are moving backwards at a time when voting can be made easier with improvements in transportation and setting up of more voting stations,” he said.

Syed Ibrahim said, however, that he would like more information in order to understand the proposal better.