Malaysians overseas will be allowed to vote

Pakatan Rakyat MPs were also promised by the Election Commission that Rela officers would remain as normal voters.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission (EC) today promised to get the Parliament to gazette regulations to allow Malaysians overseas to vote in the next general election.

DAP MP Anthony Loke said this at a press conference held at the Parliament lobby today. Also present were PKR MPs Fuziah Salleh and Nurul Izzah Anwar.

This was revealed to the parliamentarians by the EC is a meeting held at the Parliament secretariat room. The meeting was chaired by EC chairman Abdul Aziz Yusof and his deputy Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.

The nearly three hours meeting was attended by about 50 MPs from both sides of the political divide.

Loke, who is Rasah MP, said he was glad by the assurance given by the EC. However, he also reminded the electoral body that they had only two weeks to gazette the required regulations.

“I told them that they only have two weeks. The next parliamentary session will be held only after the 13th general election,” he said.

Loke added that Abdul Aziz also promised that military and police officers would be called for advanced voting, instead of being postal voters, for the general election except for those serving overseas and at the borders.

“He also assured that Rela officers will not be postal voters and categorised as normal voters,” he said.

On related matter, Fuziah said that Pakatan leaders were concerned over some reports that Rela officers may be turned into postal voters and Abdul Aziz’s assurance was timely.

The Kuantan MP said that a parliamentary constituency would have between 8,000 and 10,000 Rela members, which could affect an area’s electoral results.

“I also pointed out that about 2,000 voters were shifted from their voting locality from Pekan to Kuantan, which is illegal.

“When I asked EC about this, Abdul Aziz said they were correcting the voters’ locality. But when I told them their homes were in Pekan, he just said he would look into it,” said Fuziah.

Nurul said that it was upsetting that MPs had to verify the voters’ list when it was supposed to be the EC’s job to do so.

“In India, the electoral commission does all this. As for my constituency alone, I have about 40% dubious names in the electoral list,” she said.