Postal voting allowed for firemen on duty
PUTRAJAYA: Firemen on duty during the 14th General Election (GE14) will be allowed to cast their ballots via postal voting, said the Fire and Rescue Department yesterday.
Its director-general, Datuk Seri Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim, said the Election Commission (EC) had, on Oct 23, approved the department’s application to allow firemen to cast their ballots by post.
He said this would allow firemen serving outside their constituencies to exercise their right to vote.
“We made an application with the EC in June to enable our firefighters to vote as advance voters. This is because many of them may not be able to go to polling stations as they will be on duty during the general election.
“This will allow our officers to carry out their responsibility as Malaysians,” he said after attending the department’s monthly assembly here yesterday.
Wan Mohd Nor said there were 12,000 firefighters nationwide.
He said some of them would be on duty during GE14 to ensure the election ran smoothly.
“Their leave will be frozen a week before and a week after polling day, and most of them will be deployed to the votecounting centres.
“Their duty is to be on standby and be prepared for any fire incidents and accidents,” he said.
According to the Elections (Advance Voting) Regulations 2012, advance voters include outstation voters, election officers, election candidates, election agents, booth observers, counting agents, political party representatives, polling agents and police personnel.
In the 2013 General Election, 272,387 advance voters, comprising mainly military and police personnel, cast their ballots on April 30 that year.