POLLING CENTERS FOR OUT STATION VOTERS

By: DAP MEDIA

KOTA KINABALU Member of Parliament, Dr. Hiew King Cheu has the chance to mention to the Deputy Chairman of the Malaysian Election Commission (EC) Datuk Wira Haji Wan Ahmad bin Wan Omar on the problem and request from voters who are residing away from their respective constituencies of voting to cast their votes in polling centers specially set up for them to exercise their voting rights as outstation voters.

There is an estimated some few hundred thousand Sabahan and Sarawakian who are working and residing in Semenanjung and some 180,000 Malaysian residing in Australia alone.

The many others are spread out all over in the world like in New Zealand, UK, USA, and Canada etc. Many other countries in the world do arrange for their countrymen to cast the votes oversea in special centers and in the embassy or Conciliates. The Indonesian had voted similarly many times in their Kota Kinabalu Indonesian Conciliate.

The informal discussion was made during a meeting arranged by the Transparency International – Malaysia on the 1st December, 2010 in the Parliament meeting room on the topic “Nationwide Campaign on Reforming Political Financing in Malaysia specially aiming at achieving total transparency and fight corruption in politic. The speakers were the President of Transparency International – Malaysia Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, EC deputy Chairman Datuk Wira Haji Wan Ahmad, Professor Edmond Terrence Gomez, and the representatives from the Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament.

Many important issue and facts were raised by the Pakatan Rakyat MPs on the corrupt practices used in the politic in Malaysia especially during time of elections no matter it is by-election, state and general election, or even party election.

Datuk Wira Haji Wan Ahmad said the EC is aware of the problem of outstation Malaysian voters are not given a chance to exercise the right to vote in elections, and now they are serious looking into the various possibilities and means to pave way for the outstation voters to cast their votes. This could be in the form of e-voting system, ballot papers, or postal votes.

Dr. Hiew suggested that the EC should allow the Sabahan and Sarawakian residing or working in Semananjong to cast their votes in polling centers set up in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru or other strategic locations. For overseas countries, the Malaysian can cast their votes in the various Malaysian High Commission or Embassy offices.