Putrajaya not keen to delay polls results to improve postal votes efficacy

 

PARLIAMENT | The government will not consider a proposal to delay official election results by 13 days to allow the arrival of postal votes.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh told the Dewan Rakyat today that the proposal was "unsuitable" as Malaysia's election system is still relevant.

Ramkarpal (Pakatan Harapan-Bukit Gelugor) was responding to Khoo Poay Tiong (Harapan-Kota Melaka) who asked in the special chambers if the government would consider emulating Australia in announcing official election results 13 days after polling.

Khoo said that Australia announced indicative results immediately after election polling day whereas the final results were announced 13 days later, reflecting postal votes.

Khoo argued that many postal ballots from overseas did not arrive in time for the polls on Nov 19, 2022, and thus the voters became disenfranchised.

Khoo also urged the Election Commission to consider other options, such as allowing overseas voters to cast their ballots at their respective embassies.

Currently, postal votes have to be sent to the respective returning officers before polling closes, which generally happens at 6pm.

Counting takes place immediately after polling.

Harapan’s MP for Kota Melaka Khoo Poay Tiong

Ramkarpal explained that the EC had experimented with allowing overseas voters to cast their votes at their respective embassies during the 2013 general election.

However, the results were not encouraging, he said.

"Not all Malaysian citizens (who reside overseas) were able to go to their embassies within the stipulated time as they live far away.

"There were several other issues that led to the EC deciding that ballot papers should be sent directly to voting areas in GE14 and GE15," he added during the session in the special chambers.

During GE14, Malaysians who lived abroad faced difficulty receiving and returning ballots in time because the ballots were issued 11 days before polling day.

This was also an issue during the recent Johor state election, where some voters received their ballots only after polling day and others did not receive their ballots at all.

Other voters faced technical issues on the Election Commission (EC) website when applying for postal voting or receiving smeared ballot papers.

Meanwhile, GE15 saw Malaysians residing overseas scrambling at the last minute to find representatives to ferry their votes back home.

Ramkarpal assured, however, that the EC has a “post-mortem” session with postal operators to ensure a better postal system for voters in the forthcoming state elections. - Mkini