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Bersih to sue MoH, EC for barring voters with Covid in Johor polls

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The electoral watchdog says it is meeting potential litigants, with the suit to be filed within the next two weeks.

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Free Malaysia Today
Bersih chairman Thomas Fann said the right to vote is enshrined in the Federal Constitution and no one can stop another person from voting.

PETALING JAYA:
Electoral watchdog Bersih says it will file a suit against the health ministry and Election Commission (EC) within the next two weeks for barring Covid-19 positive voters from casting their ballots during the recent Johor polls.

Bersih chairman Thomas Fann said the group’s lawyers would be meeting some of the voters who had contracted the virus and attempted to vote, but were stopped at their polling station.

“We are in the process of talking to potential litigants. On our own, as Bersih, we don’t have the locus standi to take legal action.

“Our lawyers will be meeting (the voters) very soon to discuss the direction of the action and to seek their permission and agreement to become the litigants in this suit,” he told a virtual press conference today.

Fann maintained that the fundamental right of Malaysians to vote was enshrined in the Federal Constitution and that there was no reason for a voter with Covid-19 to be barred from casting their ballot.

He pointed out that only individuals who were of unsound mind, underaged, or had been convicted and fined more than RM2,000 or jailed for more than a year could not legally vote, while those found guilty of committing an election offence would be barred for five years.

“What we want is a declaration from the court that the right to vote is fundamental and no ministry – nobody – can stop a voter from voting. And the job of the EC is to facilitate that.

“This is something we want to settle before GE15 because we don’t want to see a repeat of the situation, where the rights of voters are hindered and restricted.”

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