Thumbs up to EC's proposal to allow M'sians abroad to vote

The Election Commission's (EC) proposal to study the possibility of allowing Malaysians abroad to vote in the next general election has received positive reaction.Several Malaysian students and workers overseas said that the proposal, if implemented, would enable them to discharge their duties, as Malaysian citizens, to vote and choose the government as stipulated in the federal constitution.However, they stressed that it should be implemented properly to ensure that it would not be manipulated by any party.

 

A student of University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, Anita Adnan, 39, said all processes should be carried out in an honest and transparent manner.The final year doctoral student said the problem in handling scattered voting was that it might be possible to manipulate the ballot box and even the number of votes."It has to be carried out systematically and carefully controlled. Otherwise, let's not bother," she told Bernama when contacted through her social website.

Still being studied 

Yesterday, EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said in Kuala Lumpur the proposal was still being studied and the EC was in the midst of getting its legal advisor's views on whether the proposal would involve amending the federal constitution.Abdul Aziz said if implemented, Malaysian citizens and students abroad would be able to cast their vote at the Malaysian embassy. However, he said problems would still arise because not all Malaysian citizens abroad had informed the relevant embassy of their whereabouts.A Malaysian citizen working with an architecture company in Wellington, New Zealand, Mohd Syafieq Lee Abdullah, 47, said he agreed with the proposal but felt that the implementation of the process should be jointly monitored by the opposition parties.

"This must be adhered to like the rest of the election processes in Malaysia," said the man who had stayed abroad over the past 20 years.

A post-graduate student at Victoria University of Wellington, Nor Balkish Zakaria, on the other hand, described the implementation of the proposal as the most awaited event for the Malaysian citizens abroad as they had probably missed several chances to cast their votes in the country's general election. "The voting mechanism should be transparent so that is no room for criticism," said the former account lecturer who had been abroad for four years.

Meanwhile, Zulazli Mohd Aziz, 39, who works in Nottingham, United Kingdom, questioned the rationale behind the proposal to allow Malaysian citizens and students to vote from abroad and whether the implementation of the system is really worth the effort."If those eligible didn't even bother to vote, wouldn't it be a total waste? "Let's make sure that we don't spend too much money only to receive a few votes," said the father of seven.

 

Source - Bernama