PETALING JAYA: The Election Commission said it had sent out all postal ballots for the upcoming Johor state election.

However, four Sin Chew Daily journalists have yet to receive their ballots.

On checking with the EC, it is found that they have not been successfully registered as postal voters!

Now that they have confirmed they won’t be able to receive their postal ballots, they are forced to return to their respective constituencies on polling day in order to vote.

Unfortunately, as all four of them need to work on the polling day, they will not be able to go back to Johor to cast their votes.

Actually they sent in their 1A application forms on February 14, or ten days before the deadline, to the respective returning officers’ addresses.

One of them said she called her constituency returning officer’s number and was told she had sent to the wrong address, although the address had been given to her by a Johor colleague who got the address from the Johor EC office.

Notably, members of the press and oversea voters have to apply for postal voting in very different ways.

For oversea voters, they can apply on EC’s website and the EC will notify them through email whether their applications are successful.

As for members of the press, they have to personally send in their completed 1A forms to the returning officers of their constituencies. They will not be notified of the status of their applications.

To make things worse, one cannot easily get the returning officers’ addresses from the EC website. The addresses can only be obtained through enquiry with the Johor EC office or the EC headquarters in Putrajaya.