KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission (EC) has received 125 applications from Malaysian nationals abroad who wish to vote by post in the 13th general election as of 10am yesterday.
Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said most of the applications received so far came from Malaysians residing in Australia, followed by the United Kingdom.
“However, we find that there are applicants who are not eligible to vote by post because they did not register as voters. This is not allowed because the condition to vote by post is that they must be registered voters,” he said when approached by Bernama yesterday.
The regulation allowing Malaysians who are residing abroad to vote by post had been gazetted on Jan 21 based on three conditions.
The conditions are that they must be registered voters in the first place; had been in Malaysia or returned to the country for not less than 30 days within five years before the dissolution of Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies; and residing abroad except for those living in Southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei and Kalimantan.
Previously, only full-time students and civil servants and their spouses (absent voters) were allowed to cast their votes by post.
Abdul Aziz hoped that the trend in submitting the application forms would continue as the number of absent voters who voted by post in the last general election had been disappointing with only about 2,600 voters.
The 1B Forms, that is the Application Forms for Postal Voting Papers (Foreign Postal Voters) can be downloaded
from the website www.spr.gov.my.
The application for postal voting facilities was opened since Jan 21 until midnight on the day of the dissolution of Parliament. — Bernama