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ABSTRACT
This article engages with the liberalist conception of extraterritorial citizenship in examining the pioneering attempt of the Malaysian diaspora to make a rights-based claim for extraterritorial voting. Using the case study of MyOverseasVote (MOV), a transnational advocacy group, this paper demonstrates how the Malaysian diaspora staked their constitutional claim as absent citizens and challenged the state’s definition of absent voters. The bottom-up reform is framed within the context of equalization of rights due to the salient ethnic element embedded in extraterritorial Malaysian citizenship. This liberalization of the external voting legislation has de-ethnicized but not equalized voting rights outside the country between publicly and privately employed citizens overseas. During the 13th General Election (GE13), Malaysia introduced a limited diaspora franchise conditioned upon territoriality and connectivity, affirming the continued relevance of territorial sovereignty.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank the editorial board and the reviewers for their invaluable suggestions and constructive critiques on the earlier version of the paper, without which it would not be in its present form. The theoretical argument, restructuring and flow of this paper owe much to a reviewer. Thanks to the reviewer’s comments, the literature is diversified to include norm diffussion, the empirical discussion is enriched, and the conclusion is modified to better reflect the distinction between ethnic and non-ethnic citizens. The author is indebted to this reviewer.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. There are a few terms describing voting in home-country elections, such as external voting, emigrant voting, expatriate voting, diaspora voting, absentee voting, out-of-country voting, extraterritorial voting, distance voting, and remote voting (Lafleur Citation2013, 17). In Malaysia, the term ‘postal voting’ is employed for citizens registered as ‘absent voters’.
2. The citizens eligible to be ‘absent voters’ are defined under the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulations 2002.
3. ‘Advance voter’ is defined under the Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981, and any eligible person who is unable to vote on the advance polling day may apply to vote as a postal voter.
4. Teo Hoon Seong & Ors v Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya [2012] 4 MLJ 245.
5. There were four election observer groups during Malaysia’s GE13; the Merdeka Center, IDEAS and CPPS, Pemantau Pilihan Raya Rakyat, and the People’s Tribunal.
6. Some countries disenfranchise their overseas citizens after a short duration abroad. Out of 22 OECD countries, 15 allow overseas citizens to maintain the right to vote without time limits. Australia limits the right for the first six years, Canada for five years, Germany for 25 years, New Zealand for three years, Portugal for 10 years, and the UK for 15 years (Caramani and Strijbis Citation2012, 393–394; López‐Guerra Citation2005, 218).
7. This idea is taken from a reviewer’s comment.
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Choo Chin Low
Choo Chin Low is a lecturer in the History Department, School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne. Her academic interests include comparative citizenship, migration, diaspora and deportation studies. She serves as a country expert for the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship (EUDO-Citizenship) on Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and China.