Keen to do your bit? Sign up as an observer or polling agent

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians looking to participate actively in the democratic process can now register themselves as observers or polling/counting agents (Paca) for the 15th General Election (GE15), with the Election Commission (EC) saying that applications for observers are now open.

EC secretary Datuk Ikmalrudin Ishak said the application to be an observer representing organisations would be subject to regulations.

“Observers will be allowed to observe polling processes such as the nomination, campaigns, early voting, the voting process, counting of votes and tallying of votes until the official announcement of the election results,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He added that applications would end on Oct 21 and the form could be downloaded from www.spr.gov.my.

Meanwhile, to become a Paca, one has to volunteer their services to election candidates or political parties.

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) says a Paca represents his party’s candidate in each voting stream to ensure that the voting process is properly and fairly conducted.

“They must be eligible voters themselves, that is, Malaysians aged 18 and above.

“The counting agent comes in to witness the counting of the votes in each stream,” Bersih chairman Thomas Fann told The Star.

He pointed out that a key difference was that observers could move to different streams and polling stations, while Paca representatives must stay put in their assigned streams.

“Another difference is that observers are independent of parties, while Paca are agents for candidates or parties,” he added.

Malaysians who are 18 or older and have never been convicted of a crime can apply to be Paca representatives through a number of channels approved by the Election Commission.

These will include political parties, which will later share links to the application forms on their social media accounts.

Once their application is accepted, volunteers will have to attend a workshop to will learn more about the election process and what they will need to do as a polling or counting agent.

These training workshops are typically held a month or so before the election, so volunteers can choose when they wish to go for the training during that period.

Volunteers will be officially signed up as polls workers after they have been given official proof that they have attended the whole day-long training session.

They will then put on standby until a later date, whereby they will be assigned a role at a polling station that they applied for in their application before the election.

This information comes from the Elections (Conduct Of Elections) Regulations of 1981 and how Paca representatives were recruited in previous elections.