MALAYSIAN students abroad today said the Election Commission (EC) has effectively denied most overseas citizens their right to vote by its mismanagement of the postal voting process.

In a joint statement today, five Malaysian student associations expressed the belief the EC had contrived for the postal voting process to fail by its late delivery of the postal ballots to Malaysian voters abroad.

“We strongly believe that the effect of this mismanagement has been to deny, if not impede, the rakyat’s right to vote as enshrined in he Federal Constitution of Malaysia,” said the association members.

The five student associations are United Kingdom and Eire Council of Malaysian Students, Kesatuan Penuntut Undang-Undang Malaysia di United Kingdom dan Eire, Malaysian Students’ Council of Australia, Malaysian Students’ Association in France, and Malaysian Progressive in Australia.

They said many Malaysians had received the ballot papers late so that they could not mail their ballots back to the EC in time. Some were notified by the courier service that their ballot papers would only arrive on May 8, May 9 and even May 10.

The postal votes must be submitted by 5pm, tomorrow.

They said it was clear the EC had allotted too little time for the ballot papers to be printed, mailed out to the postal voters, and the postal voters to mark and mail back to Malaysia.

“According to Pos Malaysia’s website, the delivery times for the international Express Mail Service are 2-4 working days for Australia, 3-5 working days for the United Kingdom and 4-6 days for France.

“Clearly a period of 11 days is too short for postal voting to take place effectively, accounting for public holidays and weekends when there are no postal services.

Despite the EC chairman repeatedly assured postal voters there was enough time for them to vote,  there clearly was not, they said. 

“Many overseas Malaysians received their ballots late, and could not post their marked ballots back in time. In many cases it was left to us, in collaboration with local groups and the Malaysian communities, to bring late-arriving ballots home physically.

“Given the short time frame allocated for the postal voting process and the late delivery of postal ballots, the right to vote for most overseas Malaysians have been effectively denied.” – May 8, 2018.