Disclaimer: This piece reflects opinions submitted by our readers. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of WORLD OF BUZZ.
While the whole world is on the edge of their seats awaiting the results of the US Presidential Elections (Come on, Nevada!), looking at the political turmoil in our own country, there are heavy rumours and allegations that there might even be a General Election in Malaysia either by the end of this year or sometime early next year.
While this is yet to be confirmed, an election would be… interesting to say the least as we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. To satisfy our curiosity, we reached out to our readers and asked their opinion on what will they do if the General Elections were to be conducted this year, by end of 2020.
More than 1,400 Malaysians voted and the results are as follows:
I WILL VOTE: 430 Malaysians
I WILL NOT VOTE DUE TO SAFETY REASONS: 246 Malaysians
I DON’T BELIEVE IN THE ELECTIONS: 737 Malaysians
Based on the poll, a majority of Malaysians don’t believe in the elections and will probably not vote. Over on our Twitter, we asked the same question and we received 174 votes for which the results are as follow:
I will vote: 59 Malaysians
I won’t vote due to Covid-19: 50 Malaysians
Elections are useless lah : 65 Malaysians
Now you can notice that in both platforms, the majority of Malaysians don’t seem to have any hope left for the election system in our country. To find out why we had a look in the ever-trusted comments section to see what our readers had to say.
In terms of Covid-19, if there’s one thing this pandemic has taught us is that a lot of our jobs can be done remotely and if so, why not votes?
Should postal votes be implemented all-across Malaysia?
Now, how postal votes work in Malaysia is that if you’re living overseas, on duty on Polling Day or frontliners, you will be able to cast a postal vote but with the current state of the country, why can’t we implement postal votes all across Malaysia, for example, someone whose hometown is in Penang but works in KL?
According to Bernama, politicians and groups regarded postal votes with suspicion saying that it was more susceptible to fraud and should receive greater security. Election Commission member Zoe Randhawa said that to ensure postal votes are implemented in Malaysia, the process should be done in extreme caution and transparency.
“We have a tendency in Malaysia to distrust our elections, (either) rightly or wrongly.
So we can’t just introduce this and then people don’t trust the system. And it actually backfires and people don’t want to use the system for their postal votes.”
As for now, the EC is planning to expand postal voting for a few more groups including sick, hospitalised and incarcerated. Not only them but also those living in border countries such as Singapore, Brunei, Southern Thailand and Kalimantan although there has been no specific deadline as to when will these groups be added.
The political scene in our country has been… tumultuous BUT we shouldn’t let deter our hope in democracy. Vote for as long as you want your voice to be heard. Now, the perfect situation may not exist now or it may not even exist next year but as common civilians, the only weapon we have is our voice and hope in democracy.
Also read: “Other countries did it too” Deputy Chief Minister says Covid-19 won’t stop Sarawak elections
