KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has chastised MCA central committee member Datuk Ei Kim Hock for saying the party opposed overseas voting as Malaysians living abroad were “out of touch” with the state of affairs here.
“My man didn’t explain it properly,” the MCA president told reporters after attending a Barisan Nasional (BN) supreme council meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre here.
“They came on Wednesday evening to say there must be somebody representing MCA. So we picked one of the nine guys who was willing to go,” he added.
Dr Chua clarified that the MCA did not agree with overseas voting purely because it presented a “logistical nightmare” as considerable resources would have to be devoted to ensure its success.
He gave the example of ballot boxes, about 800 of which would have to be provided at every Malaysian foreign mission, to allow Malaysians abroad to vote for their specific constituency.
Such a system would also be open to abuse, Dr Chua said, noting that there were opportunities for vote tampering if ballot boxes were not properly secured at all times.
Witnesses for each candidate would also have to be present at foreign missions to ensure voting was above board and to prevent accusations of bias on the part of embassy staff, he added.
Ei told the parliamentary election reform panel earlier today that Malaysians living abroad were not qualified to vote as they are “out of touch” with the current state of affairs in the country.
He said the MCA’s research had shown that most Malaysians overseas only received information from questionable sources, which may not reflect the true conditions on the ground.
“What they read about Malaysia may therefore be biased and is the wrong information. It does not give them the whole truthful picture about the ongoings [sic] in the country.
“The future of Malaysia should be determined by those who have faith and still remained in the country,” he said.
The MCA man’s position raised eyebrows and drew hushed whispers from among members of the public attending the hearing, which kicked off today, and even from the members of the parliamentary select committee.
Ei had also stressed that the existing electoral system should be maintained and there was no need for reforms other than cleaning up the electoral roll.
He said the MCA was against automatic voter registration because “if a citizen does not want to register manually in the first place, there is not much point in forcing an individual to be in the electoral roll”.
