There has been much chatter online and in coffee shops on the impact of a fixed term Parliament Act (system) and how Malaysians will benefit from it. Ideally, a fixed term Parliament Act will prevent a President or a Prime Minister from waking up one day and having to resign and or by fait acompli, dissolve Parliament and thrusting the nation into an election after another election at the whims and fancies of MPs and political parties’ resulting in chaos and instability.
I cite here Kenya as an example. The Constitution of Kenya requires that a General Election of Parliamentarians be held on the second Tuesday of August on every fifth year. This fixed term keeps the power of the President and the Government in check and at the same time, prevents permanent misrule. If there is war, the elections may be delayed with a two-thirds majority vote on a resolution in the Lower and the Upper Houses.
On an impactful level in Malaysia, a fixed term Parliamentary Act may just as well be the silver bullet Malaysians, especially Malaysians overseas have been waiting for – an improved overseas electoral system.
Time and time again, Malaysians overseas have been lamenting on the lack of clear step-by-step and up to date information on the voting process set in place by the Malaysian Election Commission (EC). For example, in GE13, Malaysians were allowed to cast their votes at the Malaysian Foreign Missions (MFM) but were unable to do so in GE14.
Apart from that, the short time frame given for the EC to send ballot papers to Malaysians in respective countries and for them to vote and send the ballot papers back in a short period of time has proven to a huge obstacle in the electoral process. This is also not accounting for the cost to send a ballot paper back to Malaysia that may cost between €73 (RM376) and €91 (RM469) using the services of a private courier service which may still take 3 to 4 days and between 15 to 21 days from the United States and Europe to Malaysia through normal post. A student on a tight budget may have to make the hard decision on spending that kind of money on his or her vote for meals for at least 5 days.
Working Malaysians have been residing overseas for decades now and with the increased number of exchange students and those pursuing to further studies abroad, paired with automatic voters’ registration of 18-year-olds and above, more and more Malaysians anticipate elections as a means to send a message on reform, good governance and for a just Malaysia with a stroke of their pens on their overseas ballot papers.
In GE15, countless Malaysians overseas set up a system amongst themselves to ferry this priceless cargo back to Malaysia from collection points all over the world from Malaysians who could not afford to post them nor travel home to vote or to the embassies. These patriotic Malaysians then ferried the ballot papers and upon arrival in KLIA coordinated with local CSOs like Undi18 and Vote Malaysia to be then dispersed to respective states into the hands of the EC Returning Officers. This precious cargo was treated with utmost care to ensure the voices of Malaysians living abroad are heard in the elections.
But what about Malaysians who did not get their ballot papers in time? Or those who received it on the eve of the elections, or worse, after the polling dates? This conundrum is due to the flawed system we have in place presently.
With technology at our fingertips, the Election Commission also has to be up to date and responsible to assist and aid Malaysians in casting their ballots overseas.
Global Bersih has recommended that, amongst others, that Malaysians are allowed to register any time before Parliament is dissolved, a one week period to validate an overseas postal voter, to publicise any changes at least 6 months before nomination day, redesign ballots, forms and envelopes that will ease ballot issuing process, for the EC to work with Malaysian Foreign Missions (MFM) to identify how long it takes for ballot papers to be sent to overseas locations and to be returned, to extend postal voting for Sabah and Sarawak and also Singapore, Brunei, Kalimantan and Southern Thailand, to use 2-factor or 3-factor authentication to enable Malaysians to register online as overseas postal voters, for EC to provide reason as to why an overseas postal registration is rejected, for the MFMs to be trained to engage with overseas Malaysians to offer unbiased information and voter privacy, to permit non-Malaysians to act as witnesses on postal ballot documents and allow postal voters to download and print PDF versions of postal voting documents.
All in all, the Election Commission must take accountability over the whole process. As of Oct 9, 2022, the Election Commission (EC) recorded 21.17 million eligible voters, an addition of over 6.23 million new voters. Therefore, the Election Commission must be serious to heed the call, proposals and suggestions by the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Human Rights, Election and Institutional Reform on electoral reform particularly on overseas electoral processes. While time is on our hands, yet we do not have much of it and all stakeholders must prioritise the fruition of the recommendations come GE16 and, before that, the Sabah state elections.
A fixed term Parliamentary system will not only create an enlightened Malaysian society that is aware and understands how the Malaysian Parliamentary system works but more importantly also for the million more Malaysians living and working overseas to ease their voting process abroad.