TWITTER users have lashed out at caretaker deputy home minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed for saying the votes of Malaysians living overseas do not matter.

The Barisan Nasional candidate for the Pulai parliamentary seat in Johor earlier today tweeted that the number of Malaysian voters overseas is too small to change the polls result, drawing rebuke from social media users as his tweet was widely shared.

“The number of Malaysians voting overseas is less than 0.1% of the population. It won’t change any result. Don’t get excited (over) it.”

The Umno politician was responding to a tweet by user Dhirenn, who asked: “Care to comment on the farce that is the voting process for overseas Malaysians?”

Nearly 4,000 Malaysians abroad are eligible for postal voting, according to the Election Commission.

But with the 14th general election to be held in just three days’ time, many living in the UK, Australia and other countries outside Asia have yet to receive their ballots under the EC’s new system requiring overseas voters to courier their ballots back to Malaysia at their own expense.

Ballots must reach the returning officers of the overseas voters’ constituencies by 5pm on Wednesday.

Several Twitter users used harsh words in their criticism of Nur Jazlan, with one calling him a “disgrace” to his late father, former information minister Mohamed Rahmat.

“More was expected of you. Very disappointing to say the least,” said Eugene Jayaraj.

“What’s wrong with you? It is not the number of postal votes that matters, but the rights of voters,” said Aruna.

“Even if it’s only 1 person overseas’ vote, it matters. It’s precisely this sort of arrogance that makes the rakyat so fed up,” said Stokey.

Qaisley Jaslenda described Nur Jazlan’s tweet as “disgusting”.

“It is incredibly unacceptable to hear such a statement coming from the deputy home minister.” – May 6, 2018.