EU head of delegation to Malaysia praises Malaysians for democratic awareness

KUALA LUMPUR: The European Union's ( EU) Head of Delegation to Malaysia, Ambassador Luc Vandebon praised Malaysians for the record voter turnout during the 13th General Election (GE13) on Sunday.

He said the massive turnout of voters on Sunday was a testimony to the democratic awakening of the Malaysian people.

“Safeguarding democracy has been and remains a cornerstone of the EU's internal and external policy. In this light, I applaud the Malaysian people for the record voter turnout for the 13th General Election,” he added.

Vandebon said this in his speech at the ‘Finding Europe in Malaysia' photography competition awards ceremony at Pavillion Mall, here, yesterday and held in conjunction with Europe Day celebrations, to be held today.

Malaysia witnessed a record 85 per cent voter turnout in Sunday's polling which witnessed Barisan Nasional ( BN) winning 133 of the 222 Parliamentary seats and remaining in power.

In a press conference later, he told reporters that he echoed the statement issued by EU's High Representative in Brussels, Catherine Ashton earlier yesterday, who congratulated Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for having won another term in office.

On EU-Malaysia ties, Vandebon said with the coincidence of Europe Day tomorrow and the dawn of the new government in Malaysia, he hoped relations between the EU delegation and Malaysia would continue to flourish over the past 10 years.

“This relation still has a lot of untapped potential,” he added.

Vandebon said EU funding for research projects has also expanded and that not only does it indicate the growing ties between our respective institutions but more significantly reflects that Malaysia has grown into an upper middle income nation.

“Scientific and technological innovations will increasingly drive Malaysia's economy,” he added.

Vandebon said EU has reached out to many different segments of the Malaysian society and industry, often travelling to various parts of the country such as Johor, Penang and Sabah to engage in public diplomacy with the aim of bringing the EU and what it stands for, closer to the people of Malaysia. “— Bernama