PUTRAJAYA -- The Election Commission (EC) has agreed to consider the request from media personnel staff to be allowed to vote by post in the coming general election.
Its chairman, Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, said that following a proposal by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms to include journalists as postal voters, the commission held discussions with representatives from the print and electronic media on the matter.
Following the discussion, he said, the EC agreed to allow postal voting for media personnel to give them the opportunity to exercise their rights as voters.
"What is recommended by the committee is journalist, but the definition of a journalist is too narrow, media personnel will be more accurate," he told a media conference after a meeting with media representatives to discuss the matter here on Wednesday.
He said there were provisions under the Election (Postal Voting) Regulations 2003 which allowed the media personnel to apply to be postal voters.
Under the regulations, the application has to be made after nomination day if there is a contest, he added.
To facilitate implementation, he said, the media organisations could submit the names of their personnel who would be postal voters.
"Administratively, it means, application can be made before nomination day, but the names have to be confirmed because once they are registered and approved as postal voters, they cannot change their status to normal voters until the next election," he added.
Abdul Aziz said that the PSC also recommended that nurses and doctors should also be considered to be allowed to vote by post or to cast their vote.
However, following a meeting with the Health Director-General, it was found that doctors and nurses that it was not necessary, he added.
He said the EC would inform the PSC on this matter at their meeting on March 6.
