Malaysian Election and Army votes
by Rights2Write
1. I am sure everyone who is concern about fair election is doing some kind of research related to Army postal votes since PR raised their concerns with regards to the upcoming by-election in Bagan Pinang.
PR are making some noises because of their concern on the impact of the soldiers votes which based on the March 8th 2009 election and being a former serviceman, their concern is not without merit. Allow me to share my experience of going through 3 elections while I was serving in the Army.
2. Soldier’s votes are very important to the ruling government as we all know that their numbers are significant when they are located in high concentration areas. I am not sure how many remembered that Najib won narrowly in Pekan during the General Election that took place after Anwar was sacked from UMNO. In that year, Najib by countable number of postal votes that came from the Army and Air Force base in Batu 9 and Batu 10 Kuantan.
3. During the same GE, Dato Anuar Musa (now Tan Sri) then lost the Ketereh seat because the airman at the Gong Kedak, which is located at the border of Kelantan and Terengganu, chose to abstain from voting. The camp is unique where it is located right at the border of Kelantan and Terengganu. They live in Terengganu and they go to work by crossing the road which brings them into Kelantan. They votes goes into Anuar Musa area in Kelantan. I remember when his wife complains to me that the soldiers were ungrateful for not voting BN.
4. In Bagan Pinang, the impact is significant as the Basic Army Training center is located there. At one time there are easily few thousand recruits and soldiers in the Camp. I am not quite sure up to where the extents of the electoral boundaries are but there are many other Army training centers along the famous PD beach road. Certainly they are concern on the impact. Unfortunately their concern appears to be targeted at different matters.
5. PR is concern that the election will be rigged. They are concern about multiple votes from one person and they are also concern of being accessible to the voters during campaigning. This would be their greatest mistake. I would say they should not be concern about the election being rigged or they are not able to campaign but they should be concern with soldiers being ordered to vote BN as well as specific people will be crossing the voting papers on behalf of the recruit and soldiers.
