So here's the thing about 14th Malaysian General Election (GE) or in Bahasa, Pilihanraya Umum Ke-14 (PRU 14) that are highlighting our news feed recently. In case you are missing the heat, or confused about the timing of it all:
- General election is done every 5 years, although the Prime Minister can dissolve the Parliament (in order to cast a new general election), through the power of Yang di-Pertuan Agong, at any time within the 5 years of his ruling.
- The last GE (PRU 13) was in April 2013, thus making the deadline for the GE to be in 2018.
- As the PM has the authority to dissolve the Parliament within the 5-year period, an earlier general election can happen and is now widely rumoured to happen in the first quarter of 2017.
After reading at more rumour-harbinger and hate-infested blogs just now, these are some speculations as to why our Prime Minister might want to move the GE from 2018 to as early as March 2017 instead:
- BN wins big in Sarawak recently and perhaps boosted from their performance, feel that the momentum they have right now is suited to be used in an earlier GE.
- Tun M's new party (technically, it's Muhyiddin's) Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (BERSATU) will gain a lot of attraction over time and added with recent handshakes between Tun and Anwar, the ruling party is wise to shake it all up before the other party became stronger in support from the people.
- Ongoing global scrutinization of our Prime Minister (and his wife) over the year might be overshadowed by the GE. It is actually a weird thing to do as the sentiments of the people is currently not favouring him at all but hey, stranger things happen (cough, *Trump* cough).
So, what's the deal with having to register your vote before the end of September 2016?
- Nothing, actually, if you decided not to, or can't vote next year.
- If you are a registered voter, it is advisable to just check your status at the official website of Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia (SPR).
- If you never vote and have not registered yet, AND you want to cast your vote for the next GE, then yes you have to act quick. This is because only those who have registered for at least 6 months prior the election are allowed to vote for the next PRU 14.
And so I registered today, at the post office. I woke early and went to the Kajang branch only to be told that the system was offline. I was livid. I was fast doubting the service the SPR can offer. If you bother to go to the SPR website at http://www.spr.gov.my/ you will notice that the server is very slow. I have never seen an official website that is not cleared with Google as they detected malicious spams and malwares from the website. Don't believe me?
But the great thing is the staff at the next post office that I went to is very efficient and fast at registering my rights to vote. Good job. I have no idea which party to vote yet, seeing as I have been neutral all my life and my view is that I will vote the person, not the party. But General Election is a different thing, so maybe I will spend some time listening to what this Syed Saddiq has to say first. Or maybe sometime in March next year I will look back at this post and laughed myself silly for being so rajin blogging about voting but still didn't vote for the next GE.