Incomplete addresses complicate postal voting in Batu Sapi - palace

 

In the run-up to the Batu Sapi by-election, various groups such as electoral watchdog Bersih, have urged the Election Commission to expand postal voting facilities to all Malaysians to allow the election to proceed safely amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the palace today said the EC’s data revealed that nearly half of Batu Sapi voters have incomplete addresses which would complicate such a measure.

“Based on the EC’s data, there are 32,962 registered voters in P185 Batu Sapi, of whom 3,170 have addresses outside the parliamentary constituency including in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak.

“In addition, it is estimated that a total of 16,000 voters have a general address, meaning there is no house number and this would complicate the implementation of postal voting,” said the Comptroller of the Royal Household Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin.

He said this was among the factors considered by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah before assenting to a proclamation of emergency in the constituency today which would allow the by-election to be postponed to another date.

Nomination day for the Batu Sapi by-election was originally slated for Monday next week, while polling was set for Dec 5.

[More to follow] - Mkini