KUCHING: Rise of Sarawak Efforts (Rose) is calling on members of the public to sign up to be polling agents and counting agents (Paca) in the 14th General Election (GE14).
According to Rose team leader Ann Teo, they need 300 Paca volunteers to be on the frontlines or at voting channels for each parliamentary constituency to safeguard the votes of every eligible Malaysian voter.
“Needless to say, their presence is more crucial in marginal constituencies. There are eight such constituencies in Sarawak,” Teo said yesterday.
She explained that Paca are individuals who are authorised by election laws to serve on election day. In summary, their role is to protect the secrecy of the vote, ensure that balloting is done according to the rules, and ensure that only those who are eligible or who are registered get to vote.
“As Rose is an NGO (non-governmental organisation) whose vision is to build a community of informed and empowered citizenry which then participates and engages in the democratic process, we see that the Paca role and platform is one of the channels that enables normal citizens to do so.”
She said that Rose provides training to members of the public from all walks of life to be Paca as long as they are aged 21 years and above and are keen to learn.
“Usually we use a mix of English and Bahasa Malaysia to conduct the training workshop. We conduct the training in a politically-neutral manner and it is later up to them (participants) to choose which candidate they wish to help.
“We only ask that each of them help to promote free and fair elections. Our trainers and facilitators themselves are volunteers. Our training is interactive and fun as we use role-playing to enable participants to get a hands-on feel of the election process as well as their roles and duties as a Paca.”
In calling on members of the public to ‘take charge, get involved, participate’ and not to ‘feel sorry for yourself’, Teo said the best thing they can do this coming National Day is to devote between three to four hours of their time to attend Rose’s Paca training session.
The first training session will be held on Sept 2 (Saturday) at Mastermind Training Centre, Green Road, here starting at 1.30pm. Those interested are encouraged to register their attendance by emailing Rose at [email protected] or contact 016-3233361.
As Rose is funded entirely through the generosity of private citizens and supporters, Teo is appealing for donations to help fund Paca training expenses (RM400 per session) and mobilisation of Paca volunteers for GE14 — training, logistics and deployment of said volunteers to selected semi-rural marginal constituents (estimated at RM10,000) as well as for a voter education initiative involving the production of a voter education animated video costing RM5,000.
To make contributions, members of the public may bank-in or transfer to Rose’s Public Bank Bhd account ‘Rose Network PLT’, account no. 3-1987692-03.
Overseas donors may choose to make a contribution through Paypal at Rose Network PLT (click through to https://sarawak.nationbuilder.com/donate).
Once done, the donors are encouraged to send an email with an attached copy of their bank-in slip/cheque to [email protected].