The Election Day for the 15th Malaysian Election has been determined by the Election Commission (EC), which is November 19, 2022. The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) has asked the Election Commission to issue a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for holding elections amidst floods.
“The EC has not announced what SOPs will be used in the event of a major flood during the election period, such as the primaries and polling day," said BERSIH Chairman, Thomas Fann, in a release received by electionhouse.org on Thursday (10/20).
October 16, the flash floods on Langkawi Island hit 30 residential areas, with 38,118 voters affected. October 20, a rainstorm destroyed more than 60 houses in seven villages in Besut, Trengganu.
"If the same disaster occurs, what is the SOP to continue or postpone elections in the constituencies, or worse, postpone GE15 at the national level," said Thomas.
BERSIH also criticized the campaign period which was only 14 days. Previously, BERSIH recommended that the campaign period be at least 21 days. In the upcoming election, there will be 6 million new voters. The lack of campaign period is also feared to reduce the opportunity for overseas voters to send ballots to the Returning Officer before the vote counting time.
BERSIH is disappointed that the EC has not set a minimum election campaign period of 21 days to give room for the contestant party machines to meet the people, considering that there was an increase of almost 6 million voters compared to the last GE14," explained Thomas.
To facilitate the voting rights of overseas voters, BERSIH urges the Election Commission to extend the deadline for closing applications for voting by category 1B mail for one week. The current closure will take place on October 23, 2022.
“No later than one more week, such as the closing date of voting applications by post category 1C (Institution/Organization), October 26, 2022. The Election Commission is responsible for ensuring that every Malaysian who is eligible to vote is involved in every election, especially in this GE15," concluded Thomas. []
This article translated by Catherine Natalia.
