Rep urges EC to enhance overseas portal voting for Johor polls

Incumbent Meingkbol assemblyperson Chew Chon Sin wants the Election Commission (EC) to enhance the overseas postal voting system for the Johor polls, noting that there is a huge Malaysian diaspora, particularly in Singapore.

He urged the EC to ensure there won't be a repeat of problems faced by overseas postal voters during the 2018 general election when their ballots could not arrive at their destination in time.

Chew (above) noted that during the general election, postal ballots were mailed directly to a voter’s address abroad but many did not receive them.

He suggested that the EC should instead allow Malaysians to vote at the Malaysian embassies.

"The EC should allow most overseas embassies to become polling stations.

"Registered voters should be allowed to collect their ballots at the embassy and to vote on the spot and ballots should quickly be cleared through customs to be delivered to the Election Commission’s main office at Johor Bahru by using the diplomatic parcel route," he said in a statement.

He added that if necessary, voting at the embassies can be done over a few days.

He noted that with the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 and the implementation of automatic voter registration, the number of Johor voters is expected to jump by more than 40 percent to 2.6 million voters.

The DAP lawmaker also urged the EC to open applications for overseas postal voting early so that the EC has more time to go through the applications.

By convention, applications that arrive after the deadline are not entertained.

 - Mkini