‘250,000 MAY MISS CHANCE TO VOTE’
Sabah party leader slams EC for not preparing absentee voting facilities
SOME 250,000 Sarawakian living outside their state will likely miss the chance to vote in the 12th Sarawak election this month.
United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau said apart from the high cost of flying home to vote, there was an issue of lack of absentee voting facilities for the polls in other parts of the country.
Madius took the Election Commission (EC) to task for the lack of action over the last 21 months, and asked whether it would be ready for the 15th General Election (GE15). He said during the Indonesian election, the Indonesian voters who worked in Malaysia could queue up and vote in the Indonesian embassy. “Why can’t we have advance voting centres in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru, Penang and Kota Kinabalu so that our Sarawakian brothers and sisters can just queue up and vote a few days in advance before Dec 18?
“In fact, we can even have this in the main cities to reduce the need for inland voters to travel home.”
Madius added: “If our Health Ministry can set up vaccination centres (PPV) to bring protection to every eligible citizen, why can’t the EC bring the right to vote to every Sarawakian in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah?”
According to an estimate, at least 250,000 of the 1,252,014 Sarawak voters are living in the peninsula, Sabah and Labuan.
“That means one in every five voters from Sarawak is expected to fly home before Dec 18 to vote, just a week before Christmas.
“Can you imagine the size of 250,000 voters?
“If they are shipped by an Airbus A320 with 160 passengers on board, that will take 1,560 flights one way,” he said in a statement.
Madius also pointed out the cost of airfares to Sarawak, which was around RM1,200 — the minimum wage in Malaysia.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, travelling home on public transport would increase the risk of infection. And interstate travellers might also have to go through quarantine in the event of sudden infection spikes, making it harder for voters to travel home even if they could afford the airfare, he added.