S'wak DAP opposes changes to postal voting

Sarawak DAP has expressed its objection to any move by the Election Commission to simplify the process of postal voting to minimise disqualification based on technical grounds.

"What the commission should do is to make the postal voting procedure transparent. Right now, it is most non-transparent, as could be seen in past elections," its secretary Chong Chieng Jen (left) said today.

He was referring to a recent statement by the commission chairman, Abdul Aziz Yusof, that the commission was considering making postal voting procedures simpler.

"The commission should not blame the requirements that the postal voters have to follow as the cause of spoilt votes. These requirements are to ensure that the person who votes is actually the one registered as a postal voter."

Chong, who is the Bandar Kuching MP and state assemblyperson for Kota Sentosa, said there was no need for the commission to complain about the requirements.

He said simplifying the postal voting process could be interpreted as helping the BN to win the elections.

Chong recalled that during the Sibu by-election in May last year, DAP's polling agents had stopped election officials from removing ballot boxes from the polling centre to the tallying centre because they had not issued Borang 15 to certify the number of postal votes inside.

He said the election officials dared not go to the tallying centre because of large number of the DAP's polling agents and helpers from Peninsular Malaysia.

"They only went out after they certified the number of postal votes inside the ballot boxes on our insistence," he said.

The result of the by-election was announced close to midnight, although the tallying of ordinary votes had been completed by 9.30pm.

"If we not had the numbers at the postal voting stations, our Sibu by-election victory might have been been stolen from us."

He said the DAP candidate Wong Ho Leng (right) secured 60 postal votes against over 2,000 by the BN's Robert Lau Hui Yew.

Agents from Peninsular Malaysia

Chong hit out at Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) assistant publicity chief Alfred Yap for raising objections to the presence of agents and helpers from Peninsular Malaysia at the upcoming Sarawak state election.

Yap, who lost to Chong in Kota Sentosa in the 2006 state election, raised the objection at a dialogue session with the Election Commission over the weekend.

Yap had also questioned the legality of Peninsular Malaysians being recruited as polling agents and helpers by the DAP in the Sibu by-election.

"I think the presence of our party comrades from Peninsular Malaysia in the past elections had to a great extent reduced the manipulation of votes at the polling stations, especially the postal voters," said Chong, citing the Sibu by-election as a clear example.

He said there was no reason for Yap to object to the presence of the polling agents and helpers from Peninsular Malaysia assisting the DAP in Sarawak.

"If he wants to object, he should also object to the postal voters from Peninsular Malaysia from voting him in the upcoming election," he said.

Yap is tipped to challenge Chong in Kota Sentosa again in the election.

He said most of the 2001 postal voters at the army camp in the Kota Sentosa constituency were not Sarawakians.

"I checked the list of postal voters who are currently voting in Kota Sentosa and about 80 per cent of them are non-Sarawakians, based on their identity cards.

"And yet they are allowed to cast postal votes in Kota Sentosa," he said.

There were 1,800 soldiers at the army camp registered as postal voters in 2006.

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