Overseas votes: A volunteer in Kuala Lumpur counting the envelopes containing ballots from Malaysians living abroad. — Bernama
PETALING JAYA: Stakeholders in the state elections must ensure that all voters come out to cast their votes, say the electoral watch body Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih).
Its chairman Thomas Fann said all efforts must be made to get the 9.7 million voters to the right polling centres on time.
“All stakeholders must actively put out the call to come out and vote,” he said.
The Election Commission (EC) said its 830 volunteers would also ensure voters knew where to go and how to ensure that they did not spoil their vote, promising fair and free elections in the six states.
Six states – Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Negri Sembilan, Selangor and Penang – go to the polls today after a two-week campaign.
With many observers for the polls – both from EC and Bersih – Fann is confident there will be no case of phantom voters.
“It is very unlikely for phantom voters to surface, as by now the voting process is closely monitored by Polling Agents and Counting Agents (Paca) as well as the EC’s election observers,” said Fann.
(The term phantom voters refers to illegally registered voters or voters who use the names of deceased relatives or others to vote in their place.)
He also said declaring state holidays would not help much as there would be voters residing in the other states that were not having elections.
“To declare a national holiday at this stage would be too disruptive to businesses and paint the government as being too impulsive.
“In short, if by now people are not convinced it is important to vote in these state elections, it is probably too late for anyone to do something about it,” he said.
Meanwhile, the EC said there would be 830 volunteers from 32 organisations at polling centres in the six states who would facilitate the polling process for voters.
The trained volunteers are from universities, NGOs and government agencies.
An EC spokesperson said these volunteers would be put into seven categories, including election assistants, poll registrar checking clerks and poll counting clerks.
“Remuneration will be paid to these volunteer workers with an allocation from the Treasury,” stated the EC.
Checks showed that students, who make up the bulk of the volunteers, came from public universities and colleges.
A public college student who signed up said that while the remuneration was a welcome incentive, being a volunteer with the EC would give youths like her firsthand experience of the country’s democratic process.
“It is my first time voting in this state election in Selangor. I decided to be a volunteer as my college is also a polling centre.
“The amount of work involved in setting up a polling centre and ensuring everything runs smoothly on polling day takes a lot of effort on the part of EC and us,” said the 19-year-old student.
Voters will be casting their votes at 3,190 polling centres in the six states in 17,048 polling streams.
The votes will be tallied at 186 vote tallying centres after the polls close at 6pm.
