Nurul Izzah: Abolish postal and early votes

SUNGAI BESAR: The Pakatan Harapan alliance has questioned the credibility of the postal and early voting system in the country ahead of the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections that will be held this week.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Vice President Nurul Izzah Anwar (pix) said that as long as this system exists, the ruling government Barisan Nasional (BN) will always have several seats that will serve as "fixed deposits" for them.
"In the 2013 General Elections, BN won a total 133 out of 222 parliamentary seats. However, the victory for 30 of those seats were secured only through the votes casted by the postal and early voters," she said at a press conference at Parti Amanah Negara's headquarters in Sungai Besar today.
She said that had it not been for those 30 seats won by postal and early votes, the opposition would have obtained a majority of 119 seats to form the government.
"Two of these 30 seats are Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar — the two constituencies up for grabs during the upcoming by-elections on 18 June," she said.
"In 2013, BN won 50.5% of the total votes at Sungai Besar. However, the proportion of ordinary voters only amounted to 49.2%. On the other hand, among the early and postal voters, an overwhelming 75.1% of votes showed support for the BN candidate. This rendered BN as the winning party as the early and postal votes provided an additional 1.4% of votes," she added.
She also said that early voters mainly comprise the police and military personnel and that there have been alleged reports that these votes are allocated to the constituency their current military bases are located, as opposed to being sent back to these voters' original hometowns.
"To ensure the fairness of our elections, we call for the counting of early votes to be conducted on the same day that the votes were casted," she said.
Early voting and postal voting will begin today in both Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar.
"We must urge extra vigilance to provide Malaysians with a free and fair electoral platform. The EC must ensure transparency by making sure that watchful eyes are kept on the ballot boxes that carry the votes of our people," she said.