VOTING....Some
Malaysians in Doha were given a mere half hour to register for the postal
voting system.
By : G LAVENDRAN
PETALING JAYA: A group of
Malaysians in Doha, Qatar, were given only 30 minutes to register under the
postal voting system for the upcoming general election.
The Malaysian Embassy in
Doha sent out an e-mail to 38 Malaysians there at about 12.30pm on Jan 3.
The deadline was the next
day, Jan 4, which was not a working day in this Islamic country, according to a
Malaysian who works in Doha.
The Malaysian, who requested
anonymity, told FMT the timing of the e-mail was absurd as almost 90% of
Malaysians in Doha work in government-related companies which shut down at
2.30pm on Thursdays.
He also said the embassy
closes at 1pm on Thursdays while nobody goes to work on Fridays and Saturdays.
Very few construction companies and sales offices are open half day on
Saturdays, but as a matter of fact Malaysians don’t work at such places.
The e-mail from the
Malaysian Embassy required Malaysians to bring a photocopy of their passport or
MyKad to the embassy or to send an e-mail with those documents by Jan 4.
“How can we comply with this
notice when there is no notice period? We don’t carry our passports and
Malaysian IC everyday/everywhere. Most Malaysians will miss this e-mail,” he
said.
While the Election
Commission (EC) can be commended on its effort to seek help from our embassies
abroad where Malaysians are working, a longer notice however should have been
given to all Malaysians working in Doha, said the upset Malaysian who wanted to
vote in the coming general election.
He now fears that he has
lost his opportunity to vote unless he flies down to Malaysia to vote on
election day, a move which he says would be costly and depending on his strict
work schedule.
FMT sent an e-mail to the
embassy requesting for an explanation on the short notice to this group of
Malaysians and on how many others were similarly affected. Even after 48 hours,
there was no reply from the embassy officials. (FMT)
No comments:
Post a Comment