MELBOURNE, April 29 – Two diplomatic bags containing postal votes of Malaysians who cast their ballots here on Sunday are on their way to the Election Commission headquarters in Putrajaya.
They were despatched from the Malaysian Consulate at noon today after they were secured and sealed under the supervision of the Consul-General, Dr Mohd Rameez Yahaya.
Rameez declined to reveal the exact number of Malaysians who had voted but it is believed that more than 80 per cent of the more than 1,000 postal voters had exercised their electoral rights at the consulate in St Kilda Road here. Rameez said the voting proceeded smoothly without any hitches.
However, a handful of Malaysians, who did not register as overseas voters as required by law, tried to gate-crash and insisted on voting.
“We explain to them the processes involved and why they could not vote here but they were not satisfied and raised their voices.
“Our website clearly explains what was required of Malaysians in order to vote. It was pleasing to note most voters followed the rules,” he said.
As for voters waiting two to four hours in queues to vote, Rameez said it was beyond his control, with only six consulate staff available to check documents and voting papers. The eight independent observers were impressed at the way consulate staff worked under extreme pressure.
“We could not fault Dr Rameez and his staff. They did an excellent job. (However) There were a couple of difficult people who had not registered themselves as postal voters.
“One Malaysian came asking for his Singapore driving licence to be accepted (as a overseas postal voter),” one of the observers who did not want to be named, told Bernama.
BERNAMA
