Only 6,298 overseas M'sians registered as postal voters
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A dismal 6,298 Malaysians out of over 700,000 living abroad have registered as postal voters.
“It is quite disappointing after all that we did to provide a convenient registration process for the voters’ overseas,” Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said.
“The process is simple. Malaysians abroad can e-mail or fax over their particulars.
“I would have thought there would be 100,000 or even 200,000 overseas people (Malaysians) registering to vote,” the commission chairman told The Star yesterday.
He said ample time had been given from January 21 till the dissolution of Parliament on April 3 to register.
Abdul Aziz also said only 2,900 absentee voters would cast postal ballots.
Asked by a reporter whether the EC’s website being down on Wednesday contributed to the low registration, Abdul Aziz said it was not a factor.
Abdul Aziz also dismissed suggestions that EC regulations for overseas voters were too stringent.
“One must register as a voter and Malaysians staying abroad can be postal voters so long as they are registered as voters and had been in Malaysia for not less than 30 days in the last five years before dissolution of Parliament,” he said.
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said certain groups, especially Bersih, had called for the EC to allow overseas voting, arguing that tens of thousands of Malaysians overseas wanted to vote in the coming general election.
“The low rate of voter registration is a little bit disappointing especially when Bersih made a big issue out of it,” he said yesterday.
Bersih steering committee member Wong Chin Huat said the poor rate was due to the late announcement of the registration of overseas voters.
