30 days clause is ‘reasonable’, says EC

The pre-condition for overseas Malaysians wanting to register as postal voters is comparative to similar clauses in Australia and Canada.

(Bernama) – The new clause imposed by the Election Commission for Malaysians residing abroad to have spent at least 30 days in the country over a five year period is a reasonable condition, according to EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.

The clause is a pre-condition for overseas Malaysian who wanted to register as postal voters.

Wan Ahmad said the condition was simple and appropriate and had also been adopted by other Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada while Singapore had a minimum three months condition.

“Thirty days in a period of five years, not 30 days consecutively. Voting is not just a right but a responsibility to the country.

“EC also looks at it as showing love for country and still having a link with the homeland,” he said.

Wan Ahmad added that the condition was proposed to the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms which approved it.

He said, however, that the decision to set the condition of five years and the minimum 30 days stay was set by the EC, as provided for under the Election Laws and Regulations.

“As a constitutional organisation, the EC has the authority to set certain conditions and procedures,” he said, dismissing claims by certain quarters that the condition was not discussed at the committee stage at Parliament.

Earlier, Rasah MP Anthony Loke from the DAP had urged the EC to review the condition, contending that it was unfair and would unnecessarily impede the election process.

Anthony had also claimed that the EC had delayed registration of outstation voters for almost 13 months from the date the PSC raising doubts on its preparedness and commitment to ensure a fair and clean election process.

Replying to Loke, Wan Ahmad said thorough preparation was necessary because the EC needed to discuss with the Foreign Ministry on the election process for outstation voters as it would involve Malaysian embassy staff who would represent the EC.

Apart from that, he said the cooperation of the Immigration Department was also necessary to check the records on the outstation voters’ return to Malaysia.

He added that the embassy staff too needed to be trained and assigned.

The regulation to allow Malaysians abroad to vote via post was gazetted on Jan 21 this year based on certain conditions.

The key condition was that they must have been in Malaysia or returned to the country for 30 days in a period of five years before the dissolution of the current parliament or state legislative assembly.

This does not extend to Malaysians living abroad in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan. They have to return to Malaysia to cast their votes.

Prior to this, only fulltime overseas students, and civil servants and their spouses were allowed to vote through the post as absentee voters.

Meanwhile, Wan Ahmad said since Jan 21, the EC had received 500 applications from Malaysians living abroad to become postal voters in the 13th general election.

He expected the applications to increase with the simplified process of sending back the form to the EC via email.

“The opportunity for Malaysians to be outstation voters is a political transformation and a paradigm shift in the democratic process,” he opined.