GLOBAL Bersih Germany and Switzerland have joined chapters in other countries in protesting the Election Commission (EC)’s move to let Pos Malaysia Bhd handle advanced postal ballots for overseas voters, instead of the Foreign Ministry.

“We support Global Bersih’s call for the EC to revert to using Wisma Putra to manage the overseas advance voting process, with the implementation of Global Bersih’s recommendations to improve the process,” said the electoral watchdog’s chapters in Germany and Switzerland in a statement today.

They said they were concerned about the lack of time, information and accountability of the election process for postal voters.

“Such a short interval (of the two weeks’ dissolution of Parliament and candidate nomination) makes it nearly impossible for overseas voters to use Pos Malaysia, to receive and return the ballots to the right place on time.

“It is (also) highly unclear how the ballots will reach overseas Malaysians and how/to where they are going to actually return the ballots.

“(When managed by Pos Malaysia) anonymity and confidentiality of the votes might be compromised without a well-trained body to be held accountable for such an important process,” they added.

Bersih 2.0 recently voiced its concern over the EC’s decision to let Pos Malaysia managed advanced postal balloting overseas after EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah said that the national postal agency would take over the Foreign Ministry’s role on this matter.

Bersih Netherlands and Bersih Shanghai also issued recent statements, respectively, urging the EC to announce the election date at least two months in advance to let Malaysians living abroad make preparations to fly back to vote.

Bersih Australia and Malaysians living there have also told The Malaysian Insight that they preferred to fly home rather than rely on advanced postal voting due to a lack of confidence in the system.

Global Bersih has proposed improvements to the EC for more independent voting for Malaysians overseas, better voter secrecy, election process transparency and security and election outcome legitimacy.

Bersih had also questioned the move by EC to include more civil servants to be eligible for postal voting in the next general election. – January 26, 2018.