KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22- The Civil Defence Department (JPAM) will ensure that the approximately 640,000 of its eligible members and volunteers nationwide perform their duty as Malaysian citizens by voting during the 13th general election. JPAM deputy director-general (Operations) Selamat Dahalan said the department has begun monitoring, identifying and reviewing the status of each member to ensure they carry out their responsibility.
“The Election Commission (EC) has also worked from the beginning to ensure that those eligible go out to register and those registered go out to vote. We are helping the EC to ensure that our members and volunteers vote.
“Maybe politicians such as division chiefs have called on people to vote…we are only helping to make sure our members do not forget to do so (vote),” he told Bernama at his office yesterday. When asked about the department’s task during the election, Selamat said JPAM is not stationing a fixed number of personnel to monitor the election but will open a 24-hour operations room in each district.
“We can’t monitor all areas, but we will put some members on standby in hot areas to monitor polling centres. We have 12,000 active volunteers nationwide who can be deployed within an hour should there be an emergency, disaster or assistance needed in the election process,” he said.
The JPAM rescue team will provide protection to ensure the safety of lives and property in case of disaster, as well as facilitate victim rehabilitation after the disaster occurs. The JPAM, under the Home Ministry, which carries out duty under the Civil Defence Act 1951, will celebrate its 61st anniversary on March 24.
BERNAMA
