Postal voting overhaul

The New Straits Times (Used by permission)
by Farrah Naz Karim

KUALA LUMPUR: The postal voting system for the impending general election will be conductedin a new way, following trials over the past year.

For the first time in Malaysia’s general election history, political party agents will be allowed to sit in military camps and police headquarters to not only verify voters’ names, but monitor the whole process of the voting system, now rebranded as “advance voting”.

Envelopes and postal bags will also make way for transparent ballot boxes, as seen at regular voting centres, where party representatives will sign on the seal of ballot boxes once voting is over and check during tallying that the boxes are not tampered with.

At army camps and police headquarters, uniformed officers who had, in the past, managed the election themselves under the supervision of a handful of Election Commission personnel, have been relieved of this responsibility to allow EC officers to run the show independently. EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said this was among improvements to the electoral system that the commission had been working on over the year and was n ow ready for implementation in the 13th general election.

He said the system was tried and tested in several by-elections and was ready to be carried out on a mammoth scale, involving some 200,000 military and police personnel, who would be casting their votes a few days ahead of the general election.

“We are all for an efficient and transparent voting system and this is among areas where we do not have to wait for amendments to the laws to be made.

“Perception has been an issue as when uniformed personnel run the whole process, it is only expected that claims of biasness arise.

“In making this advance voting system more efficient, we will allowparty agents to sit inside the polling station from morning to finish when military and police personnel vote,” Wan Ahmad told the New Straits Times ye s t e r d ay.

Once voters have crossed the ballot papers and slipped them into the transparent box, the papers would be kept under tight security.

For instance, if the voting session goes on for several days (usually one to three days) the boxes would be kept in the returning officer’s off ice.

On polling day, the votes from the personnel would be counted either at the returning off icer’s office or at the tallying centre.

Wan Ahmad said the EC was still putting in measures to close loopholes the system might h ave .

The issue the opposition had with advance voting at military and police bases, he said, was the number of ballot papers issued.

“In a camp where there are 100 registered voters, for instance, not everyone will be present as some will be away on training or duty.

Their worry is that these ballot papers will be abused although we have explained to them that every piece is accounted for.

Wan Ahmad said those strongly opposed to the advance voting system could not expect army and police personnel to join the masses on polling day to cast their votes as police personnel would be on duty to ensure safety and security, and army personnel were expected to be on guard to protect the country.