We call on the Election Commission (EC) to expedite Overseas Voting implementation.
We call on the EC to set up users friendly mechanism at the global embassies and consulates, facilitating Electronic Voting for qualified Malaysian citizens with national ID card, passport, or reliable face recognition technology.
Overseas votes accounted about 40% for coming Tanjung Piai by election, compared with 85.67% in last May, GE15 and 70% turnout rate estimate by EC chairman Azha Harun this time. This highlights the importance of making the overseas voting to work.
Overseas voting is a straight forward matter. Our neighbouring country, Singapore, has the Parliamentary Elections Act, which allows qualified citizens living abroad to register with the Elections Department to be eligible to vote. Polling overseas usually begin and end before domestic polling.
The United States also has The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), which allows its citizens to vote anywhere in the world.
One of factor leading to the change of government was the fight for an inclusive electoral reform. We now have the opportunity to set the system right, and to include overseas diaspora in shaping the new Malaysia.