“The government’s policy is explained in Article 119 (1)(a)(b) of the Federal Constitution, Elections (Voters Registration) Regulations 2002 and Elections (Postal Voting) Regulations 2003.
“The law state that only Malaysian citizens who are public servants working overseas and their spouses, and full-time students and their spouses, have the right to cast their votes (from overseas) if they are registered as voters,” he said.
Fong had asked about progress on the issue of giving Malaysians overseas the right to vote as requested by the Malaysians Overseas – Right to Vote campaign group.
Fong asked whether the government intended to change the policy as it was not right to deny Malaysians overseas their right to vote.
“According to the Constitution, they can be absent voters if they don’t live here. But the government made regulations to deny them their right. They want the right because they still love the country and want to play a role,” she said.
Nazri said the government was only adhering to the law which states that in order to vote, one must be a resident of a constituency at the said time.
“We want them to be physically present to vote on election day. Exemption is only for public servants and students,” he said.
“If they really loved Malaysia, they shoud come back and vote. They willingly went abroad and stayed there for five, six years and didn’t come back. It means they don’t love Malaysia.”
As such, individuals who are qualifiet electors are those going to cast their vote at the polling station on Election Day.
As in the Malaysian’s case, a qualified elector is a Malaysian citizen, 21 years of age or older, who was resided in the election consituency, and who is not otherwise disqualified.
The term ‘elector’ has the same meaning as the term ‘voter’.
Two schools of thought have been prominent regarding the eligiblity of populations of their right to vote or not on the Election Day – Universial of Franchise and Limited of Franchise.
The first school of thought grants surrrage to all the populations, in order the saveguard the interest of all elements of the voters. Under the unlimited franchise, it was essential that everyone must posses the right to have opinion counted in the final decision of public affairs.
However, the second school held that franchise was not an inherent right of a citizen. Adult suffrage only given to those who have reached a certain of age such as eighteen years in Britian, United States of America, India, and Russia, twenty-one years in Malaysia and France, and even twenty-five in Japan.
Further more, a voter must be necessarily be an educated person with at least the ability to read and write.
In India, for intance, illiteracy is not a disqualification, if a citizen possesses another qualification such as the payment of land revenue, income-tax, municipal or district board rates.
Are we moving towards or thinking along this line?
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