Govt rules out broadening postal voting, e-votes for Sarawak polls
PARLIAMENT | The government has indicated that it does not have enough time nor the resources to implement reforms that would make voting easier in the upcoming Sarawak election.
This includes e-voting and broadening the postal voter base.
For e-voting, de facto Deputy Law Minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said...
PARLIAMENT | The government has indicated that it does not have enough time nor the resources to implement reforms that would make voting easier in the upcoming Sarawak election.
This includes e-voting and broadening the postal voter base.
For e-voting, de facto Deputy Law Minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (above) said there's just not enough time.
"How is it to be done in only three weeks?
"I had also tried to push for e-voting during the recent Malacca polls," she was quoted as saying by The Star.
She said this while responding to an emergency motion on electoral reforms moved by Kelvin Yii (Pakatan Harapan-Bandar Kuching) in the Dewan Rakyat's special chamber today.
Meanwhile, The Vibes quoted the deputy minister as saying that broadening postal voting or absentee voting for Sarawakians who live or work in other states posed a significant logistical hurdle.
“There is a technical issue with collecting all the ballot papers, as the voting is based on constituencies in the state assembly.
“Because it involves 82 state seats, this means it will require 82 ballot boxes placed in each voting centre (outside Sarawak).
“There will be problems in terms of logistics management and it will require a high number of election officers,” Mas Ermieyati said.
Postal voting is only available to Malaysians living abroad, members of the security forces, the media and election workers.
E-voting or broadening the postal voter base has been a constant demand among East Malaysian MPs who say that travelling back to vote is also a logistics hurdle for voters especially as air travel is not cheap.
In a separate development, the government also declared that lowering the voting age to 18 will come into force on Dec 15 - three days before polling in Sarawak.
However, 18-year-olds will most likely not be able to vote during the Sarawak election as the Election Commission will normally use an electoral roll from before nomination day.
Nomination day for Sarawak is next Monday, Dec 6.
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