Data Collection on Malaysia’s 14th General Election – Overseas Voting Process

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Global Bersih’s findings from our data collection of the 14th General Election (GE14) are as follows:

  • The Election Commission (EC) and foreign Malaysian missions did not provide adequate and timely information on the registration and voting process. The information that was relayed conflicted and varied from agency to agency. This caused widespread confusion, frustration and disenfranchisement.
  • The EC demonstrated incompetence by not processing applications and notifying citizens of their voting status in a timely manner, allowing discrepancies on the electoral roll, erring with regards to voter eligibility and not having an appeals process.
  • The illogical timeline for overseas voting has been well documented. There was not enough allowance for ballots to reach voters and return to the respective constituencies in time. This cause many voters to expend extraordinary time, effort and money in order to get their ballots counted in time.

We propose the following reforms to the entire process before the 15th General Election. You will find them in the final section of this report.

  • Implement automatic voter registration
  • Lower the voting age to 18 years old
  • Minimum 28-30 days campaign period
  • Standardise on an on-going basis the system for overseas voters
  • The EC to take responsibility for the overseas voting process
  • Mobilise overseas Malaysians to vote.

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