Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii calls on Malaysia’s EC to gazette postal voting reforms for over 200,000 out-of-state Sarawakian voters.
KUCHING: The Election Commission (EC) must use the ongoing electoral redelineation process in Sarawak as an opportunity to push through long-overdue voting reforms, Bandar Kuching Member of Parliament Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen said today.
Dr Yii, who represents the DAP under the Pakatan Harapan coalition and is serving as Bandar Kuching MP since 2018, called on the EC to gazette regulations enabling postal voting for Sarawakians residing in Peninsular Malaysia — both for the coming Sarawak state election and the upcoming general elections.
“Democracy is measured not only by the act of voting, but by who is able to vote,” Dr Yii said in a statement.
“Currently, our electoral system still excludes thousands of citizens — not by law, but by geography, cost, and outdated processes.”
Dr Yii cited estimates of more than 200,000 registered Sarawakian voters currently residing in Peninsular Malaysia — comprising students, workers, and families who are constitutionally entitled to vote but face prohibitive barriers to doing so.
For many, the journey home is far from straightforward. Beyond flight costs, returning to interior constituencies can require boat rides, four-wheel-drive trips, and several days of travel — at costs that can exceed a month’s salary.
Students must skip classes; workers must sacrifice annual leave or risk their employment.
“When we require citizens to pay such a steep price to vote, we are, in effect, imposing a wealth and mobility test on their constitutional rights,” Dr Yii said.
He added that with automatic voter registration now in place, the number of outstation Sarawakian voters will only grow, making inaction increasingly indefensible.
The MP also invoked Malaysia’s painful experience with the 2020 Sabah State Election, which then-Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin later admitted was a key cause of the country’s third wave of COVID-19 infections.
Following the 2020 Sabah state election, case numbers rose across the country due to voters returning to work in other states, and the outbreak was identified as the trigger for Malaysia’s third COVID-19 wave.
Research published in PLOS Computational Biology
estimated that approximately 70% of post-election COVID-19 cases within Sabah and 64.4% of cases in the rest of Malaysia were attributable to the election’s direct and spillover effects.
Dr Yii argued that this episode demonstrated Malaysia’s elections are dangerously over-reliant on physical polling stations and mass movement of voters.
“When the next health crisis arrives — and it will — we cannot afford to choose between public safety and democratic participation,” he said.
He pointed to other countries that successfully expanded postal voting during the pandemic, noting that secure implementation is achievable through verifiable identity checks, tracking mechanisms, and transparency measures.
Dr Yii grounded his call in Article 119 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees every qualifying citizen the right to vote.
He argued that the principle of “one citizen, one vote” is rendered hollow when the mechanics of voting systematically exclude those who live, work, or study far from their home constituencies.
“Sarawakians in the peninsula are not ‘absent’ citizens — they are citizens whose contribution to the nation is no less significant, and whose voice in state governance is equally vital,” he said.
He urged the EC to treat the current redelineation exercise as a “golden opportunity” to simultaneously carry out boundary changes fairly and constitutionally, while also expediting postal voting reform.
“Postal voting is not a radical idea — it is a practical, proven, and long-overdue reform that will make our elections more inclusive, more resilient, and more just,” Dr Yii concluded.
The Sun Malaysia
