EC: Over 200,000 Malaysians eligible for postal voting in GE14

PETALING JAYA: GE14 will see 212,834 Malaysians eligible for postal voting, said Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

“Postal voters via Form 1A, such as election workers, the military, the police and members of the media make up 149,730 voters, whereas those under Form 1B, such as Malaysians overseas make up 7,979 of the total," he said.

Mohd Hashim said in a statement on Sunday (May 6) that this refutes the allegations by certain parties that they were four million postal voters in GE14.

He added that the EC also received 51,472 requests under Form 1C, which includes voters from the Fire and Rescue Department, the Immigration Department, volunteer policemen, government hospital and clinic workers, the Maritime Enforcement Agency of Malaysia (APMM), the Malaysia Civil Defence Force, the Prisons Department and the National Disaster Management Agency.

“The EC advises all postal voters to return the postal ballot paper to their returning officers before 5pm on polling day,” he said.

Mohd Hashim also called for caution to all postal voters to include their identity verification forms as well.

He said that the EC advises postal voters to not believe the messages on social media that state that postal voters need only return their ballot papers without the identity verification forms on the pretext that their votes would no longer be a secret.

“Doing so would have their vote rejected because it would be considered that it wasn’t marked by a registered voter,” he said.