SIBU: The Election Commission (EC) has been urged to implement postal voting for Sarawakians working in West Malaysia and Sabah.
In making the call, Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chief Chong Chieng Jen stressed that this is to provide and facilitate Sarawakians in exercising their constitutional right to vote during the 15th general election (GE15).
“When the EC can implement postal voting for those Malaysians who are staying overseas, why can’t they (EC) implement postal voting for Sarawakians and Sabahans who are working in West Malaysia?
“After all, it is only some algorithm and some software programming, that will do the job. It is not a very difficult software programming to implement,” he said at a press conference after the launch of DAP Sibu Operation Centre, today.
“There are 50,000 Sarawakians working in Johor and that doesn’t include those working in Penang and Kuala Lumpur. A rough estimate of 100 to 200 thousand Sarawakians will not be able to come back to vote.
“I’m not saying they are voting for us or for Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) but at least these Sarawakians can practise their constitutional right. They can choose the representative from Sarawak that can truly represent the majority of people of Sarawak,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lanang incumbent Alice Lau urged airlines especially Malaysian Airlines and Air Asia to offer a special price ticket to all Sarawakians to come back to vote.
“I remember in 2018 Air Asia and Malaysia Airline actually have this special rate for Sarawakians to fly back to Sarawak to vote.
“So, I hope that this time they can offer the same because an UMNO leader said this is the mother of all elections and is actually for the first time 18 to 21 years old voters can vote and also because of automatic registration, many voters that never registered before, they now can vote,” she said.
Lau noted that the aviation companies play a vital role in making sure that all the voters came back to vote during the upcoming GE15.
