Kuching: The Election Commission (EC) must take the opportunity during the current electoral redelineation process in Sarawak to also expedite necessary voting reforms to ensure all Sarawakians regardless or demographics and geography can fully participate in the electoral process with less hurdles and obstacles.
Democracy is measured not only by the act of voting, but by who is able to vote. Currently, our electoral system still excludes thousands of citizens not by law, but by geography, cost, and outdated processes.
That is why since the beginning, i have pushed for reforms to allow Sarawakians in Peninsular Malaysia to vote by post or any mechanism that optimises participation in the elections for citizens separated by distance.
Postal voting should be established as a permanent electoral reform to achieve two intertwined goals: maximising voter participation and future‑proofing our elections against any possible pandemics and other disruptions.
There are estimated over 200,000 registered Sarawakian voters residing in Peninsular Malaysia—students, workers, and families who are constitutionally entitled to vote, yet face prohibitive barriers. For many, returning home is not a simple flight to Kuching or Sibu; it means additional boat rides, four‑wheel‑drive journeys into the interior, days of travel, and costs that can exceed a month’s salary.
Students must skip classes; workers must sacrifice leave or risk 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
Postal voting from the peninsula would eliminate those obstacles. It would convert a disenfranchising ordeal into a simple act of casting a ballot from one’s place of residence. Moreover, with the implementation of automatic voter registration, the number of out station Sarawakian voters will only grow. To choose to ignore this reform is to knowingly suppress turnout among a significant segment of the electorate.
On top of that, our experience during the last Covid-19 pandemic shows that pandemic‑proofing is no longer a luxur, but it is a necessity. We should never forget the spike of cases caused by the Sabah State Elections in 2020 during the pandemic.
The COVID‑19 pandemic revealed a stark vulnerability, our elections are overly reliant on crowded polling stations and physical movement. When the next health crisis arrive, and it will, we cannot afford to choose between public safety and democratic participation. A well‑designed postal voting system serves as a built‑in circuit breaker. It allows elections to proceed without mass gatherings, protects poll workers and voters alike, and ensures that no citizen is forced to choose between their health and their vote.
Countries that implemented or expanded postal voting during the pandemic demonstrated that it can be done securely, with verifiable identity checks, tracking mechanisms, and transparency measures that maintain public trust. There is no reason Malaysia cannot adopt the same safeguards. To delay reform is to leave our electoral process dangerously exposed to the next emergency.
Article 119 of the Federal Constitution guarantees the right to vote to every citizen who meets the qualifications. Nowhere does it say that right must be exercised only if one can afford a cross‑sea journey.
The principle of “one citizen, one vote” means nothing if the mechanics of voting systematically disenfranchise those who live, work, or study away 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.
That is why i call upon the Election Commission to take this golden oppostunity to not only carry out the needed redelienation exercise fairly and constitutionaly, but also expedite all these needed reforms to gazette regulations to enable postal voting for Sarawakians in Peninsular Malaysia for the coming state election as well as the upcoming general elections
The right to vote is the bedrock of democracy. If we truly value that right, we must remove every unnecessary barrier that stands between a citizen and the ballot box. 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.
Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen
DAP Sarawak Publicity Secretary & Bandar Kuching MP
27 March 2026
