Bersih said the latest move by the Election Commission (EC) is also a step back from the target of abolishing postal voting, and to replace it with advance voting a day before polling day.

“There is no excuse for the EC to extend postal voting to such large and unjustifiable categories,” the group said in a statement today, adding that the 2018 budget allows for postal voting to be replaced with advance voting.

On Monday, the EC said it was ready to receive applications from civil servants who would like to vote through postal voting if their employers confirmed that they were needed to be on duty on polling day.

EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah said beside EC staff, police and army personnel, nine other categories of civil servants may also apply to be postal voters.

They include staff of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Prisons Department, Fire and Rescue Department, government hospitals and clinics, volunteer police, Civil Defence Force, Immigration Department, National Disaster Management Agency, and those from the National Registration Department stationed at urban transformation centres.

Bersih said expanding the categories of postal voters is “flawed” and “a gross violation of principles of the right to vote, vote security, electoral integrity and the democratic process”.

It said there was also no clear guidelines on the identity of the “employer”.

“More worrisome is the fact that applications for domestic postal voting has been opened without determining the date of the elections.

“How can the civil servants apply for postal voting without knowing for sure that they will be on duty on polling day?” it asked.

Bersih slams use of POS Malaysia to collect overseas ballots