‘Clueless’ M’sian foreign missions

MOV has discovered that Malaysian embassies and high commissions abroad are fumbling with voting processes with some still practicing discriminatory rules.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian consulates abroad have shockingly scant knowledge of Malaysia’s voter registration and voting processes, according to a survey by MyOverseasVote (MOV).

MOV also discovered that each of the 21 consulates surveyed had its own set of regulations for voter registration and were poorly equipped to register full-time students as postal voters.

MOV is a campaign that is pushing for the right of all Malaysians living abroad to vote regardless of profession.

The Election Commission (EC) currently permits only full-time students, civil servants and members of the armed forces to register as postal voters.

“Answers on details of registration and actual voting process differed from one embassy/high commission/consulate to another,” MOV said in a statement today.

“At worst, consular staff readily admit they don’t know about postal voting and are waiting for instruction from the EC or the Foreign Office.”

MOV learnt that some embassies will mail the Form-A to an applicant and request that it be returned to the embassy. Others, like that in Sydney, insisted that the form be returned directly to the EC.

Embassies in Rome and Berne meanwhile are only open for postal voter registration when Wisma Putra gives them the green light. The embassy in Singapore requires a letter from a voter’s college.

Embassies in Mumbai and Bangkok on the other hand have admitted to not knowing about postal voting and are not supplied with copies of Form-A.

“The Form-A for ordinary and postal voter registration can be downloaded from the EC website,” MOV pointed out. “But some embassies don’t accept downloaded application forms while others are unsure about its use.”

“The EC also doesn’t seem to have a stringent or consistent way to vet applicants based on their status as a student. As such we are not convinced that ‘security’ is the reason for barring working or retired Malaysians living abroad from voting.”

Independent investigation

MOV also highlighted a practice in Canberra and New York City that still bars non-government-sponsored students from registering as postal voters. This is despite a recent directive from the EC reminding its outposts that all full-time students are allowed to register.

However, it also acknowledged the EC’s swift action in overturning this rule in London and Paris after the matter was raised in February.

“Given how this discriminatory rule was once implemented across the embassies, one can discern a discrimination against Malaysian voters who are not linked to the government,” MOV stated.

“An investigation to ascertain the history of this practice should be carried out by an independent party not linked to the EC or Wisma Putra.”

MOV maintained that the EC has no valid grounds to discriminate against overseas Malaysians who are not students, civil servants or members of the armed forces.

It also rejected the excuse of an identification problem to deny this section of Malaysians their postal vote as a MyKad and/or passport with a matching thumbprint can easily identify a Malaysian citizen.

“The EC must overturn the current arbitrary law which defines who can and who cannot vote with a postal vote,” MOV said. “The current regulations are against Article 8 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees equal treatment for all citizens under the law.”

“All Malaysians living overseas who qualify as ‘ordinary voters’ should be entitled to vote with a postal ballot.”