Tindak Malaysia’s 3 proposals for postal vote reform

Tindak Malaysia calls all voters, especially those from six states facing state elections (Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan), to appeal to the Election Commission (EC), assemblypersons and MPs for three major postal vote reforms for the upcoming polls.

We commend the past efforts of our EC for expanding the voter base for postal voters since GE14 for state elections and 15th General Election (GE15) which included overseas Malaysians.

We acknowledge EC has made a great effort in producing materials to educate voters on what to do with postal votes.

However, GE15 exposed serious deficiencies in EC when handling the greater postal voting base.

Though the postal vote shares out of the total votes issued are small, the expansion of postal voting rights to include overseas Malaysians and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) workers resulted in a jump in postal vote share.

With the exception of odd constituencies that had a significant military presence (such as Bera and Jeli), urban seats like Subang, Petaling Jaya, Damansara and Bukit Bendera witnessed a growth in postal vote share from zero to lower than one percent (in GE14), and from one to over two percent (in GE15).

As a matter of fact, the top two parliamentary constituencies with the highest numerical growth for the number of postal vote ballots issued (when compared to GE14) were Subang and Damansara (constituencies without major police or military presence).

Among the top 10 parliamentary constituencies (for GE15) with the highest growth of postal ballots issued, seven of them are large urban seats without significant military or police voting blocs.

With the short notice of GE15 announcement on new classes of postal voters, the short campaign period and other factors, both domestic (some polling staff recruited after postal vote deadline) and overseas Malaysian postal voters had great difficulty in exercising this right.

In light of the GE15 experience, we have studied our 2018 postal vote reform proposal, consulted our own volunteers and submitted an updated postal vote reform to EC in May.

While regulatory amendment is not advisable for the state elections, we have determined three areas in which the EC can exercise their powers effectively to strengthen the postal voting process immediately.

They are as follows:

• Immediate declaration of the overseas Malaysians of the six states as postal voters from June 1.

  For GE15, our research found that EC classed overseas Malaysians as postal voters a few days before the dissolution of the 14th Parliament.

  This is within the powers granted to EC through the Elections (Postal Voting) Regulations 2003.

  Early declaration of overseas Malaysians as eligible postal voters will prevent online registration crashes and give more opportunities for Malaysians to choose this form of voting right.

• Extend the campaign period up to 28 days (from nomination to final polling day).

  EC has been granted powers via Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981 to determine the date of nomination and date of polling.

  This extended period will allow the postal votes to arrive at the hands of eligible Malaysian postal voters and provide sufficient time for the ballots to be returned to Malaysia.

  While some argue the long campaign period can be tiring, there is no obligation for the candidate to start the campaign immediately after nomination.

• Have closer cooperation with Wisma Putra, embassies, high commissions and consulates in the postal voting process.

  Close collaborations with these institutions are to facilitate the movements of postal votes and ensure ballots arrive on time in their respective constituencies.

  Since there will be a potential 245 state constituencies facing elections, it would be unreasonable for Malaysian voters and volunteer groups to bear the burden of ensuring the ballots arrive safely at the right returning officer’s office.

Tindak Malaysia would like to reiterate to all voters, particularly in the six states facing state polls, to push through these straightforward appeals through their elected representatives.

Tindak Malaysia will advocate these appeals in time to come with hashtag #UndiPosBaik and encourage all Malaysians to read Tindak’s proposal for postal vote reform.

We appeal to all Malaysians to disseminate Tindak’s postal vote reform with the hashtag #UndiPosBaik.

Tindak Malaysia aspires that our EC restores its public confidence with drastic improvements in the postal vote process for the coming state elections.

Reform proposal is available here:

Postal vote data of GE14 and GE15 is available here:

- Mkini

DANESH PRAKASH CHACKO is the director of Tindak Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.