Global Bersih calls for reform of overseas voting process

PETALING JAYA: The overseas voting process must be reformed by the Election Commission (EC) immediately, says electoral watchdog Global Bersih 2.0.
Global Bersih 2.0 secretary Nirmala Devi Windgatter said the move is important because the recent 14th General Election (GE14) saw three main flaws that affected registered voters abroad.
"According to data collection from April 20 to May 31 which included 1,620 voters from across 50 countries, were found that both the EC and Malaysian missions overseas did not provide adequate information on the registration and voting process. The information from these authorities were confused, conflicted and varied from agency to agency.
"Secondly, the EC demonstrated incompetence by not processing and notifying citizens of their voting status in a timely manner.
"Thirdly, there were not enough allowance for ballots to reach voters and for their return to the respective constituencies in time. This caused many voters to expend extraordinary time, effort and money to get their ballots counted in time for the GE14," she said in a press conference held at Bersih 2.0's headquarters here today.
The group has urged the EC to implement automatic voter registration, lower the voting age to 18-years-old, set a minimum campaign period of between 28 to 30 days, standardise the voting system for registered overseas voters, and take responsibility for the overseas voting process.
Present with Nirmala was Bersih 2.0 acting chairman Shahrul Aman Mohd. Saari.
"We will present our findings to the EC next week," they said.