Press Statement
18th February 2022

If it is true that only some 1,000 voters have registered as postal voters when there are 200,000 Johor voters in Singapore, I call on Election Commission to extend the online registration for a week or it will be the single biggest IT failure in the world.

It has been reported that only some 1,000 voters have registered as postal voters in Singapore when there are 200,000 Johor voters there – representing a shocking half per cent.

If this is true, then it qualifies to be the single biggest IT failure in the world.

I call on the Election Commission to extend the online postal voter registration campaign from today, when it is supposed to end, to next Friday on 25th February, which should pose no problem in the Internet era especially as Johor voters in Singapore have been given less than 10 days for registration exercise.

The postal voter registration exercise by the Election Commission has been plagued by many glitches and technical issues.

The former State Assemblyman for Pekan Nenas, Yeo Tung Siong, has received complaints about these technical issues from more than 10 Johor voters working in Singapore in the last two days.

The former State Assemblyman for Mengkibol, Chew Chong Sin, suggested that the Election Commission enhance the overseas postal voting system for the Johor polls as there is a huge Malaysian diaspora particularly in Singapore.

He suggested that the EC should allow Malaysians to vote at the Malaysian embassies with the overseas embassies becoming polling stations where registered voters can collect their ballots and to vote on the spot.

These are proposals which the Election Commission should act on to ensure that there is a maximum voter turnout in the Johor polls on March 12, 2022.

Lim Kit Siang
MP for Iskandar Puteri