See urged civil and political rights action groups such as Bersih to consider immediate commencement of a court proceeding to seek judicial intervention and compel the EC to make such regulatory and procedural provisions.- Bernama photo
SIBU (March 18): Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How has called for judicial intervention to compel the Election Commission (EC) to make regulatory and procedural provisions to allow East Malaysians residing in the peninsula to be registered as absent voters and vice versa.
He urged civil and political rights action groups such as Bersih to consider immediate commencement of a court proceeding to seek judicial intervention and compel the Election Commission (EC) to make such regulatory and procedural provisions.
He said as the general election will be held by next year, swift judicial remedy in the form of a prerogative order in the form of a mandamus to compel the federal government and EC to make regulatory and procedural provisions to register absent voters and/or gazette rightful absent voters as postal voters so that more Malaysians can exercise their rights to vote.
“I am willing and ready to assist any group or persons to undertake this public interest litigation.
“In July last year, Bersih chairperson Thomas Fann disclosed there are approximately 540,666 Sabahans and Sarawakians living and working in Peninsular Malaysia and an estimated 79,978 from Peninsular Malaysia now staying and working in Sabah and Sarawak.
“The disclosure by Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin that the EC has no plan to extend the postal voting category to allow Sabahan and Sarawakian voters who are residing and working in Peninsular Malaysia to vote in their home states in the coming 15th general election (GE15) manifested poor and inefficient governance of the present federal government and the EC.
“It is a blatant disregard of the constitutional and legal rights of Malaysian citizens and the federal government’s oblivious to the duties and responsibilities of the EC,” he said in a statement yesterday.
During the Dewan Rakyat sitting yesterday, Mas Ermieyati had said that EC has no plans yet to extend the postal voting category to Sabah and Sarawak voters residing in the peninsula in GE15.
According to See, Mas Ermieyati had quoted Article 119 of the Federal Constitution and she also said that the EC had recommended voters to change their voting constituencies according to their place of residence.
To this, See said the right to vote was not merely to exercise this right mechanically, but as Malaysian citizens, the people must be allowed to choose whether they want to vote in their own home states, be it in the Peninsular Malaysia or Sabah and Sarawak.
“It is all the more unreasonable when our citizens are divided into categories and while a few are allowed to be absent voters and able to vote by postal voting, others are not.
“The deputy minister is also lacking in her understanding of the stipulation of Article 119, which listed the three qualifications that every citizen needs to fulfill to be registered as an elector and exercise his or her constitutional rights.
“Every citizen that has attained the age of 18 years; is a resident in a constituency and is an absent voter; and is under the provision of any law relating to elections, registered in the electoral roll as an elector in the constituency is entitled to vote in that constituency in any election.
“With the words “Every citizen”, the provision in Article 119 clearly affords all Malaysians to be registered as an absent voter and be given access to vote in their home constituency, in Peninsular Malaysia or the Bornean States,” he said.
See went on to say that it was unfortunate that the federal government and EC had seen it fit to restrict registration of absent voters and restrict categories of voters who may apply for postal voting, hence curtailing the voting rights of a huge segment of citizens.
He urged Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Dato Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar to advise the prime minister and the federal cabinet to include at least two other categories as absent voters and/or postal voters in the coming general election.
“The changes can be affected by amending the Election (Registration of Electors) Regulations 2002, and or the Elections (Postal voting) Regulations 2003.
“Malaysia is one of the very few parliamentary democracies that is most restrictive in our electoral process, denying our electors who are facing financial, geographical and other constraints and cannot appear at their chosen home polling places to exercise their constitutional and legal rights to vote.
“By not allowing more categories of our citizens to be registered as absent voters and by restricting the categories of our electors to vote by postal voting, the good effort of lowering the voting age to eighteen years and the automatic registration of electors are rendered futile,” he concluded.