KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) — Postal voting is still relevant as it allow armed forces and police personnel on duty during election to exercise their responsibility to vote, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

He said the removal of postal vote envelopes by the election officer could be observed by agents from contesting parties as witnesses.
However, the handing over of postal votes envelopes to the voters at army camps and police headquarters were only done by the Election Commission officer.
“Not only witnesses from the opposition parties but those from Barisan Nasional (BN) are also barred from observing the process at army camps and police headquarters,” he said when winding the Election (Amendment) Bill here Tuesday.
Nazri said the postal voting process was conducted by the armed forces and police without interference from outside parties.
“We do not interfere in the armed forces and police administration. Things like where the personnel votes are made are decided by them,” he added. He told Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Bandar Kuching) that charges of fraud in postal voting should be backed by concrete proof and the courts had the right to annul the result.
To a question from Teresa Kok Suh Sim (DAP-Seputeh) who wanted to know why the families of armed forces and police personnel were also allowed to use postal voting, he said the security forces had their rules and regulations.
In a written reply to Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur), Nazri said until May 31, 2007, some 4,789,685 people had registered as voters with the Election Commission (EC) nationwide.
He said there were 79,719 new voters registered this year compared with 294,939 last year.
— BERNAMA