Sabahans must return home to vote

The Election Commission has no mechanism in place to allow the thousands of Sabahans working in the peninsula to cast their ballots as absentee voters.

KOTA KINABALU: The disenfranchisement of thousands of Sabahans living and working in Peninsular Malaysia is one of the anomalies that have sprung up ahead of the looming 13th general election that is expected to be one of the closest elections in the country.

There is still no mechanism or policy that would allow voters registered in Sabah to cast their ballots in Peninsular Malaysia.

As such, those wishing to cast their ballots in their home state more than 1,600 kilometres away across the South China Sea, will have to cough up for air tickets there and back for the privilege of voting in the election.

It could also be an unexpected windfall for AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), the biggest financial beneficiaries of the election quirk that has always existed but has become more pronounced with the increasing numbers of Sabahans seeking better job prospects in the peninsular states.

However, not many are expected to shell out the few hundred ringgit to make the trip back. Many young Sabahans working in the peninsula are in the low to medium salary bracket and can barely make ends meet.

For them there was no option but to leave their homes in a state listed as having the highest poverty rates in the country simply because they could not afford to continue living in their kampungs where agriculture is the main employer and in some cases, subsistence farming is the only option.

With AirAsia making travel cheaper, thousands have been able seek better jobs elsewhere in the country and returning perhaps once a year during a festival. The elections do not count.

Election Commission chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusuf has ruled out any change in the voting rules to accommodate them.

“They need to go back to their allocated polling stations in Sabah or they can change their address to their address in Peninsular Malaysia so that they can vote here,” he said.

No mechanism

Tawau MP Chua Soon Bui recently raised the matter in Parliament, saying that there were more than 10,000 Sabah voters working in the peninsula who would be disenfranchised as the EC had no mechanism in place to allow them to cast their ballots as absentee voters.

Aziz countered the MP’s criticism, saying there were also many Peninsular Malaysians currently working in Sabah and Sarawak who might face similar difficulty.

“It is not feasible in term of logistics on how the votes can be sent back to Sabah and mobilised to be counted at various counting centres,” he said.

He said that those serving in the armed forces as well as police officers on duty during polling day would be called for early voting.

Only those Malaysians serving overseas and those stationed at the borders will cast postal votes, he said.

The bags of postal votes will be sent to the counting centres by 5pm to be counted first and the EC will reveal the final numbers of postal votes in each state constituency as soon as the election is called.