The matter was decided by the Election Commission (EC) at its meeting on Sept 25 which set five categories under the security and health personnel scheme as postal voters.
EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah, in a statement, said besides JBPM personnel, the others are health officers and workers (government hospitals and clinics only), Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency personnel, Prisons Department and Police Volunteer Reserve (PVR) personnel.
“This facility is granted on the justification that the staff concerned cannot leave their duty on that day to vote,” he said.
Prior to this, the category of voters who could apply for postal voting were military personnel and their spouses, as well as police personnel and their spouses, including media and election workers who had to vote outside their polling stations.
Hashim said the facility would be implemented in GE14 and was gazetted on Oct 23 based on the Election Regulations (Postal Voting) 2013.