GE14 | Election Commission (EC) chief Mohd Hashim Abdullah has reminded those who have registered for postal voting not to mail their ballots at the last minute.

Postal votes must reach their respective returning officers (ROs) by 5pm on polling day - Wednesday, May 9 - for them to be counted.

Thus, Mohd Hashim advised postal voters against procrastinating when they receive their ballot paper.

“If you receive the ballot paper and keep it for seven days, and only send it at the last minute, then of course there will be problems.

“Multiple times I have urged our overseas voters to make their choice and send the ballot paper immediately to the (relevant) RO,” he told a press conference at the commission’s headquarters today.  

The EC has not stated when it will distribute ballot papers to postal voting addresses but previously said it would do so “as early as possible”.

Postal votes need to be placed in envelopes addressed to the RO in their constituency. Alternatively, these can be sent to the RO’s office at voting centres.

In response to electoral reform NGO Bersih’s criticism over the process of postal voting, Mohd Hashim maintained that the commission was committed to enabling as many people to vote as possible.   

“We think the eleven days (campaign period) is enough time (to mail postal votes), as long as you don’t hold on to them for long.  

“We only want those who are overseas to be able to vote, that is why we introduced this new method of postal voting where we mail ballot papers to where voters live,” he told the same press conference.  

Bersih previously urged the EC to implement “advanced overseas voting” to allow overseas Malaysians more time to post their ballot, taking into account possible delays in the mail.

It also said there was a lack of transparency and precise guidelines in the postal voting process, causing confusion among overseas voters. Bersih further criticised the commission for not inviting independent election observers to scrutinise the postal voting process as well as the counting process of such votes.

Those eligible for postal voting include the police, armed forces, emergency medical personnel and media personnel working on polling day.

Registration for postal voting first opened on Jan 22 this year and closed on April 7, when Parliament was dissolved.