Early voting is preferred to postal vote
Dayakbaru:
I cannot see why the police and soldiers are not able to vote in places allocated to the general public. By voting in Army camp and Police Station – give an environment of being insecure as you fear your superior might know who you vote for.
Counting of postal ballot separately also can indicate to the Government who the police and soldiers are voting. In such a case, voting is not secret anymore. We find postal ballot is always for BN because of the “fear” factor. That is not fair to any voter as we must cast our vote without fear as provided by democratic processes.
KUCHING, May 26 — The Election Commission (EC) is looking into the possibility of replacing postal voting with an early voting system to ease the procedures for the voters in the next general election, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said.
He said the EC was in the midst of studying the matter because the existing postal voting procedures were very technical as postal voters were requested to send their forms in Envelope B and the ballots in Envelope A to the returning officer’s office by 5pm on the polling day.
“We will also look into the possibility of using the early voting system at the Sarawak state election,” he told a press conference here today.
The proposal, however, would not involve postal voters abroad, he said.
Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz refuted allegations that postal ballots returned during the Sibu parliamentary by-election on May 16, surpassed the number of the ballots issued for postal voters, hence, causing the delay in the vote counting process.
Abdul Aziz said of the 2,827 ballots issued to postal voters, only 2,637 were returned as of 5pm, on polling day.
The delay in vote counting process was merely due to the distractions from outside the room, he said.
On the accusation that there were phantom voters detected on polling day, he said they were actually district officers who were delivering the postal votes to the returning officer’s office.
“They cannot cast a vote because only the registered voters are allowed to do so,” he said. — Bernama
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6 Responses to “Early voting is preferred to postal vote”
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Surely, there is a `fear` factor there. Supposing the army and police votes are in favour of the opposition, do you thing Prime Minister is happy with the Chief of Arm Forces and IGP?
So what do you think? Is it possible that the army and the police voters are duly instructed by their superiors only to vote for BN?
Postal votes – trick still possible in many ways to ensure votes turn in favor of BN. BN has always believed postal votes are 99.99% for BN, or at least the votes can be tampered with/changed/replaced/ in order to maintain the 99.99%. You can what ever, but situation and environment cannot be stopped from changing…BN, you are sure to lost more seats in Sarawak if you do not change…Love You BN
Postal votes are cast by voters held at ransom! Institutionalised voting! Vote against your BN master, the hand that feeds you, gets to lose your job or gets demoted. Why can’t these voters vote the rest of other citizens? Another BN way of legalised cheating.
TIME TO END A SYSTEM OPEN TO FRAUD – POSTAL VOTING MUST BE ABOLISHED!!!
Respect have long argued that the postal voting system is wide open to fraud. We regularly meet people who say someone had come to their house asking for their postal votes, etc.
Last ‘Sibu Buy-Election’, most people will make their way to the polling stations to cast their votes, in secret, for the candidate of their choice. That is the way it should be. Your vote, your choice all in secret.
Postal Voting permit fraudulence voting such as phantom votes or fake votes or bogus votes or personation votes that betray our system of democracy. Postal voting opens the door to threats, pressure and outright vote-buying.
If you vote in a polling station, nobody can make you show them your ballot paper. Nobody can know if you’ve obeyed orders or not. Worst of all, though, is that the authorities don’t seem to care and/or deny it. Police inquiries seldom get anywhere. Postal voting open to electoral fraud risked such as “undermining confidence” and “conspiracy”.
Respect believe that democracy is too important to allow parties and individuals to steal votes. It’s time that Postal Voting on demand be abolished and only for people too ill, infirm, incapability or abroad at the time of the election should be able to apply for a postal vote or even replaced by Election Commission ‘Special Centralized Polling Center” and which must be witnessed by an “Independence Election Observers” (IEOs) and “International Election Observer Missions (IEOMs) organized at a strategic place but convenience for the voters to cast their votes eg the Malaysian Embassy abroad.
The greatest problem with all-postal ballots lies in the loss of confidence caused by the massive scope that exists for electoral malpractice.
Under the traditional system, there was perhaps a minor chance that someone would be able to impersonate someone else, and exercise another person’s right to vote; the famous ‘undi antu’….
Under all-postal voting, there is massive scope for fraud and undue influence. It is, at every turn, open to fiddles. So much can go amiss between the ballot paper being sent out by the returning officer and it coming back to him. Votes can be gathered up when lying on the doorstep or in flats. So much of loopholes….
Just my personal thought:
Whoever serving the Government; the Army, Police, Prison Department, Custom Department and other government agencies are presumably under the code of conduct, “Saya Yang Menurut Perintah” and “Surat Aku Janji”. They’re very-very likely to vote for their BN master. Basically ‘nadai choice madi’….
I began to wonder the followings:
a. How transparent and legitimate is the ‘postal vote system’?
b. How sure-is-sure or how white-is-white are the names in the ‘postal vote system’ does not include individuals under the list below;
i) the veterans.
ii) retired personnel.
iii) personnel who are undergoing resettlement course (undergoing pension process).
iv) personnel who’re already classified as ‘death’/ ‘MIA’ or no longer in service (eg. their names still remain in such unit and have not been erased or deleted from the voting list).
v) personnel from different outpost and/or stationed in another location of operations eg you’re stationed in JB/Perak but your name is listed in Sibu therefore you’ll not be able to go to Sibu to vote but ‘someone’ else will undertake to help you ‘X’ your vote by special directive.
c. Does any of the opposition/independence representative(s) have any direct access to counter check and/or verify all these ‘postal votes’ in an Army or Police camps, etc, legitimate?
d. Does any of this service personnel has legal status right and privilege to vote their preferred choice of candidate? Or under command and control?
e. How sure-is-sure the ‘postal vote begs’ are not hijack and replaced during the delivery process and/or added with some extra ‘undi hantu’/ ‘phantom votes’? Can anyone and/or any opposition/independence representatives question the integrity of the service personnel (Army, Police, etc) escorting the ‘postal vote bags’?
f. How sure-is-sure are the ‘SPR Personnel’ stationed in the polling center are not ‘phantom agents/voters’?
g. How come on the polling day, some voters find that their names are not listed in the registered polling center ‘Point A’ but instead at another polling center ‘Point B’ (far away from their village/location) even though it was confirmed that they have checked their names existed in ‘Point A’ a week earlier?
Exhibit of “Malaysia Postal Voting Discrepancy” – “Undi Tambahan” from nowhere?
In Malaysia, opposition leader and former DPM Anwar Ibrahim (PKR) alleged that postal votes have been used by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in securing seats in certain constituencies. He also said that in one particular constituency (Setiawangsa), he claimed that his Parti Keadilan Rakyat had actually won during the 2008 elections, before 14,000 postal votes came in awarding the incumbent BN parliamentarian the seat with a majority of 8,000 votes. In Malaysia, only teachers, military personnel, and policemen based away from their constituencies are eligible to submit postal votes.
Further reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/03/2177581.htm
U pikir-pikirlah sendiri…
My personal recommendation:
a. ‘POSTAL VOTE SYSTEM’ must be abolished as it’s alleged breaches of the electoral code of practice and could be replaced by “E-Vote System” and/or all respective service personnel serving in the Government agencies (the Armed Forces, Police Force, Custom Departments, Prison Departments, etc) should be given a special leave to cast their vote in their respective constituency in which they have registered their names earlier on.
b. In addition those youths and/or families whose names have been registered in eg Sibu/Kanowit/etc but are unable to return home on the polling day due to working commitments or logistics matter i.e. those voters who are working abroad in West Malaysia/ Singapore/ Brunei/ Indonesia/ etc, SPR/ EC should organize a special polling center (eg Malaysian Embassy) for them to cast their votes/rights during the General Election Day.
c. It is recommended a “Independence Election Observers” (IEOs) be setup/ formed together with “International Election Observer Mission (IEOMs)” to observe, monitor and report election procedures measure up and accountable to international standards. Their tasks are also to give non-partisan advice and assessments on the fairness of elections and that have supposedly a great impact on the country and/or state concerned, be it because the label of “free and fair” (or its opposite) influence the internal political processes.
Democracy of Change WE Must
Democracy entails election as the peaceful procedure for the change of government but it is often endangered especially when a government assumes that it may not be re-elected and lose power.
Democratic governments are defined as being representative of and accountable to their electorate. Within a well functioning democracy, they must also be subject to restraint and oversight by other public agencies: this is the idea of checks and balances
To avoid “undermining confidence” in democracy itself, we need change. For future elections, postal voting on demand should be suspended and/or abolished completely. Nobody in these places is more than a short walk from a polling station. If we do not act, we are effectively in league with the vote-stealers.
I want to have confidence in our electoral system. With mass postal ballots, I no longer have this confidence. Other than for a very limited number of specific reasons the postal ballot facility should be removed for future elections as it is just so prone to fraud and abuse. A few extra safeguards is not the answer it needs to be withdrawn.
The question of fraud and malpractice has not only excited the Opposition and the rakyat, but garnered many column inches in the press.
However, I do not believe that the allegations have been fully scrutinized to assess whether they stand up, so I welcome the opportunity once and for all to deal with this important issue.
The various media reports of a small number of voters being bullied or put under duress to cast their ballot continued throughout the last week of the election.
It is vital for elections both to be secure and to be seen to be secure, and for any evidence of malpractice to be reported to the police straight away.
Conclusion
Greater use of postal voting has made Malaysia elections far more vulnerable to fraud, ‘cheating conspiracy’ and resulted in several instances of large-scale fraud.
To all voters and/or potential voters let us all “Vote For Change”, You get the Government and system that you vote for and the Administration that backs that Government and your rights!
Lastly, is Barisan Nasional (BN) truly practices “Freedom of Democracy” or “Anti-Democracy Indoctrination”? Is Postal Voting equivalent to ‘Con-Voting’ and/or ‘Proxy Voting’?
SELAMAT GAWAI DAYAK 2010, Cheers!!!
Bala Kaban.
Asal ia postal vote, pengawa nya penemu aku agi ulih dimanipulate kaban laban bala sida SRP nya bisi kepentingan ba pehintah kaban kaban. Lebih agi enti postal vote kena sida pulis, sida rila, sida SRP empu, sida sedadu endang sigi ulih dimanipulate sida kaban. Nya kebuah ba Sibu kemari keputusan laun dipansut ke, semadi enda ulih adu ke sida iya nya kaban laban bala dap maioh.
Enti sida ngundi tumu engka bisi ga jalai ke betul, tang enti sida ka nipu agi ulih meh kaban. Engka meh udah sida ngundi lalu dikira terus anang mai peti undi ke bukai tau ke disimpan ba pulis. Laban enti ia disimpan ba pulis tau ke dibai ke bukai ia ka nyadi dimanipulate baru ga kaban.
Mupok kaban. Selamat Hari Gawai. Idup Iban Idup Dayak. OOhhaa….
tabi Dr.JBA, aku bc ctik tanya agai nn,
ulihka enda kami kerja ruarto nyaman perintah laban kami nadai di beri pemendar ngena undi pos enda daka cda polis,sedadu tauka kerja perintah bukai?.. retinya laban kami ka ukai kerja perintah pen rayat malaysia ga enda patut kami diciping baka nya ba penemu aku sebarang sapa baikka ia kerja perintah tauka kempeni entik enda ulih muai undi ba nalan diri empu sigi enda tau ngundi nya baru enda beciping..