With the parliament dissolving tomorrow (7 April 2018) and the 14th General Election (GE14) day just around the corner, many people are gearing up to vote for their favourite candidates at their polling district and some of them will be casting their ballots through post. But, before you post your ballots, here’s a heads up for all postal voters!
You are hereby advised NOT to place your ballots in the normal postbox. Instead, you should use designated channels provided by the Election Commission (EC), reported Malaysiakini.
This Public Service Announcement (PSA) was made because Perak EC’s deputy director, Shazree Idzham Wahab, said that they had found some blunders made by postal voters in the state (Perak) during the 13th General Election (GE13).
“There were several cases involving postal voters who lacked knowledge on the postal voting procedures and ended up putting their ballots in the normal postbox.”
“When we carried out a post-mortem on the issue, we found that the ballots had not arrived. Upon further investigation at post offices, a large number of ballots were found in normal postboxes,” said Shazree after the EC’s briefing to Perak’s media practitioners.
He gave two possible ways to send out your votes after placing them safely into envelopes, which are;
- Addressing the post to the returning officer in their constituency
- Directly sending the post to the returning officer’s office at the voting centre
Make sure you post using the right channel!
“We hope media personnel who also use postal voting during the 14th general election will also understand and take note of the procedures involved,” he explained.
Aside from media personnel, eligible postal voters also include firemen, policemen and soldiers who are on duty during the election day.
So, if you’re a postal voter, be sure that you are aware of the designated channels in which you can post your vote. Don’t let your vote go to waste!
Also read: Prime Minister Najib Razak Just Announced Dissolution of Parliament on 7th April