1,574 overseas Malaysians register as postal voters

He said the highest number of Malaysians registered to vote were from Australia with 350, followed by the United Kingdom (258), United States (108), China (88) and Qatar (86) since online registration was launched on Dec 21, last year.

"The decision by EC to enable all Malaysians overseas not including government servants and students to register via online, fax and email has been effective.

"About 100 Malaysians residing overseas are registering with EC daily and we hope the trend will continue.

At the moment, EC has not received any protests or complaints from Malaysians abroad on the registration process."

He said this after handing out appointment letters to three non-governmental organisations (NGO) as local observers in the coming 13th general election for Sabah and Labuan, here, today.

The three NGOs are the Sabah branch of the Malaysian Historical Society, Sabah Youth Council and the Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah.

Abdul Aziz said among the conditions for Malaysians abroad to vote were that they must register as voters earlier and return to the country for at least 30 days in the last five years before Parliament is dissolved.

"Our conditions are reasonable as we do not want them to break the cultural, family and Malaysian ties when abroad.

"The conditions are similar to those imposed in other countries," he said.

Malaysians abroad who have registered as voters and wish to vote by post can download the application form (1B Form) through the EC website at http://www.spr.gov.my.

To avoid abuse, Abdul Aziz said the balloting process overseas could be witnessed by party agents.

"The parties can appoint anybody as their agent there. However, the ballot papers can only be opened in front of the candidate's agent in Malaysia," he said.