Lim said if the claims by Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman that only 1,000 voters in Singapore have registered as postal voters until now are to be believed, the registration period must be extended.

“If it is true that only 1,000 voters have registered as postal voters when there are 200,000 Johoreans in Singapore, I call on the EC to extend the online registration by a week,” he said in a statement today.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said the nine days given by the EC to register were too short.

“Johor voters overseas have less than 10 days to register. Unfortunately, because people have to be already registered voters before they can apply to be postal voters, this last-minute amendment means those who had not registered as voters beforehand will not be eligible,” he said.

Lim said if the EC truly wished for a high voter turnout, it should extend the period of registration for postal voting.

Meanwhile, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail urged the EC to immediately announce the actual number of Johor voters who have registered as postal voters based on their country of residence. 

He asked the commission to simplify the process and be more proactive in promoting the postal voting registration campaign, including on social media.

Previously, the EC only permitted overseas voting for Malaysians who had spent at least 30 days in the country in the last five years.

This meant that Malaysians living in southern Thailand, Singapore, Brunei or Kalimantan in Indonesia did not qualify for postal voting and had to return to vote.

But a decision to amend that requirement was made ahead of the Melaka elections last year to allow all Malaysians living overseas to apply to cast their ballots through postal voting.

Johor goes to the polls on March 12. Nominations will be held on Feb 26 and early voting will commence on March 8.