Gerakan broke ranks with BN partner MCA today over the overseas voter issue, saying every citizen has a right to vote, “regardless of geographic location”.

In a statement this morning, party deputy president Chang Ko Youn said “our foreign missions must set up a fair and effective mechanism to facilitate this process” adding, “free and fair elections are an inalienable democratic right of citizens”

gerakan agm 151011 chang ko youn Chang noted that the electoral system had to keep up with the times “to respond effectively to contemporary challenges facing our election system”.

He added that Gerakan has submitted their position paper to the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms with five recommendations.

Apart from recommending allowing overseas voting, Gerakan also wanted the electoral roll to be “updated and sanitised” to remove duplication and ensure only “living and bona fide Malaysian citizens are registered”.

They supported the use of indelible ink saying, ”We do not believe that the use of indelible ink will impinge on the constitutional rights of any Malaysian.”

The other points mirrored Bersih 2.0’s demands of allowing free and fair access to “state funded media” to all political parties in order to give the voter “complete information”.

Finally, they called for vigorous monitoring of the electoral process and for the EC to be given enforcement powers to take the appropriate actions against election offenders.