Bersih questions integrity of postal voting for GE14

Election reform NGO Bersih has questioned the integrity of the postal voting process for the 14th general election, since the Election Commission (EC) failed to state the involvement of independent election observers in the process.

The NGO also criticised the EC for providing “incomplete” and piecemeal information to overseas Malaysian voters.

Yesterday, EC chief Mohd Hashim Abdullah announced that overseas Malaysians could register as postal voters, beginning today, through the commission’s website.

The announcement failed to mention the role of election observers, Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah noted.

“In the last general election, some election observers were allowed into overseas polling booths while some were not allowed.

“A transparent and accountable process is required for postal voting. There was no mention of election observers (in the EC’s announcement yesterday),” Maria (photo) told Malaysiakini when contacted today.

Election observers oversee the entire balloting process and are a key check and balance mechanism.

In the last election, overseas Malaysian voters told Malaysiakini that they doubted the integrity of the postal voting process after finding embassy staff acting as EC agents. However, they lauded the involvement of independent observers.

Opposition parties have also previously expressed doubt over the postal voting process after they were barred from accessing postal ballot boxes while counting agents complained that some postal ballot boxes failed to arrive on the stipulated ballot-counting dates.

What about advanced voting?

Another issue Hashim (photo) failed to address was whether overseas Malaysian voters had the option of advanced voting, Maria said.

“Advanced overseas voters too should be included in the announcement,” she said.

Bersih submitted a proposal to the EC last May, recommending that it designates overseas polling stations for advanced voting - where vote-counting is carried out on-site to prevent discrepancies in the storage and transportation of ballots.

Under postal voting, votes are posted back to the respective constituencies in Malaysia to be counted.

Maria concluded that the EC’s silence on these issues rendered “incomplete” its announcement yesterday.

“EC’s announcement was only about how to register. Only later will it announce more information (about other aspects of postal voting).

“The EC knows GE14 is to be held soon so it should give out all the information at once.

“Its statement was incomplete and did not take into account the recommendations proposed by Bersih,” Maria said.

Make voting easier

Hashim had also said that Malaysians residing in Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand and Kalimantan, Indonesia, were not eligible for postal voting and were thus required to travel home to cast their ballots.

Maria disagreed with this.

“These places are close by but (Malaysians living there) would still need to spend money to come back and vote.

“We have embassies there, so we should set up polling stations there to allow more people to vote.

‘The EC is supposed to make voting more accessible, not more difficult,” she said.

Maria added that in countries where the EC did set up polling stations, more of such stations should also be made available. This was to prevent Malaysians from needing to travel long distances in order to vote.

“For example in the United States, Malaysians have to travel to New York City to vote.

“More polling stations should be made available around the country,” she added.- Mkini