EC to gazette overseas voting regulations in two weeks

Hazlan Zakaria 5:43PM Nov 19, 2012

The regulations and mechanism on overseas voting for Malaysians outside of the country will be submitted to Parliament to be gazetted in one to two weeks time, assured the Election Commission in a special briefing for parliamentarians today.

This is to follow up on its earlier promise that Malaysians living abroad will have the chance to vote in the upcoming 13th General Election.

"That was EC's commitment," DAP's election committee deputy chairperson Anthony Loke (left) told reporters at a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.

"They said that they are now in the midst of finalising details with the Foreign Ministry".

He related that the EC promised this in a special briefing attended by over forty elected representatives in the Parliament building earlier this afternoon.

EC to administer access to gov’t media during polls

Loke added that the commission in charge of overseeing Malaysia's electoral process has also been given the authority by the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry to administer access to government media for all political parties to air their advertisement and election manifesto during polls.

"They said that they will brief all political parties soon on the requirements and mechanisms".

The Rasah MP also explained that they had told the EC that contrary to what the commission had believed, opposition parties do not shy away from the offer, but instead just wanted advance notice and lead time to be given.

"We welcome it, but we have told them to expedite the briefing, especially to Opposition parties, as we will need time to come up with the materials".

Overseas voting and access to the media for all political parties are two of the recommendations by the Parliamentary Select Committee on electoral reforms, and were also part of the demands by electoral reform pressure group Bersih.

The EC has been wrestling with complying with popular demands for electoral reforms, arguing that it faced legislative roadblocks, lack of funds and lack of mandate, though it has started to slowly deliver and promise reforms following intense public outcry, bipartisan political massaging and media scrutiny.