PBDSB president Bobby William said such has been disclosed by the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin in the Dewan Rakyat recently.
MIRI (March 25): Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) questions the Election Commission (EC) for not having any plan to extend the postal voting category to Sabah and Sarawak voters who are residing in Peninsular Malaysia in the 15th General Election (GE).
Its president Bobby William said such has been disclosed by the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin in the Dewan Rakyat recently.
Instead, the EC has recommended voters to apply for change of voting constituency based on their latest place of residence.
“PBDSB refers to the statement by Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin in the Malaysian Parliament recently.
“PBDSB questions the rationale behind the decision not to extend the postal voting category to Sabah and Sarawak who are residing in the peninsula in the next general election,” he said in a statement.
Bobby stressed that it is the constitutional right of every Malaysian to determine the government of their choice and such right must not be impeded because the present government is not able to enforce such right due to reasons best known to the EC of Malaysia.
“The EC should not overlook the fact that there are about half a million eligible voters presently working in West Malaysia which accounts for about a quarter of the total eligible voters in Sarawak.
“PBDSB hopes that the EC could solve this matter as soon as possible and not simply deny Sarawakians their right to vote,” he added.
Bersih Sarawak chairman Ann Teo told a local English daily recently that there is no reason why such postal voting categories cannot be extended to Sabah and Sarawak voters who are residing in the peninsula in GE15 if the civil servants who are required to be on duty on polling day can apply for postal voting.
According to Teo, there are estimated 500,000 Sarawakians and Sabahans residing in West Malaysia either to get an education or to earn for a living and their rights to vote have now been threatened with the uncertainty about Covid-19 and prohibitive costs of air travel.
Referring to the statement made by Teo, Bobby said: “In this respect, PBDSB supports the call by Bersih to extend the postal voting for Sarawakians in West Malaysia.”
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