The Malaysian Bar - New voting process demonstrated

Home

News

Legal/General News

New voting process demonstrated

Friday, 30 December 2011 08:42am

©The Sun Daily (Used by permission)

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 29, 2011): Some changes to the voting process will be adopted by the Election Commission (EC) to facilitate the use of indelible ink, in line with electoral reforms proposed by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC).

The EC briefed and demonstated the new voting process to the PSC during a meeting between the two at Parliament house today.

Under the new process, four polling clerks will be in attendance at every polling room. Their roles are:

>> First Clerk: Check the identity of the voter, and check both hands of the voter to verify there is no ink marking which will signify the person has already exercised his vote.

>> Second Clerk: Paint the first phalanx of the left index finger of the voter with indelible ink, which cannot be removed for at least 48 hours, to indicate the person has voted.

>> Third Clerk: Issue ballot papers to the voter.

>>Fourth Clerk : Scrutinise to scrutinise the process and ensure that the voter places his ballot papers in the respective transparent ballot boxes for state and parliamentary elections after going to the screened area to vote).

In a press conference following the briefing, PSC chairman Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkilli who is also Science, Technology, and Innovation minister said the changes to the voting process will be implemented in the upcoming general elections.

"We have accepted the process (demonstrated to us) as the final process, it is confirmed," he said, adding that the regulations on the use of indelible ink will come into effect from Feb 1.

The use of indelible ink was one of 10 suggestions made by the PSC in its interim report, which was tabled and accepted in the Dewan Rakyat on Dec 1.

Among the PSC's recommendations in its interim report were that:

>> the EC’s independence be improved by increasing its manpower and maintaining its scope of power;

>> that members of the armed forces and police and their spouses be allowed to vote earlier;

>> Malaysian voters living overseas be allowed to exercise their right to vote. (Currently, only civil servants and their spouses posted overseas and full-time students overseas get to exercise this right.);

>> the electoral roll be cleaned of deceased and ineligible voters, and dubious voters with identical MyKad numbers, or those over 90 years old, as well as those who are not local to the constituency, and excessively large numbers of voters registered in one address.

Maximus said, the strengthening of the EC in increasing manpower and providing additional allocations has already been implemented, and the regulations to allow advanced balloting for armed forces and police (and their spouses) is being drafted, and will be tabled by March 1.

"However, the EC has requested more time to study the mechanism involved in allowing overseas Malaysians to vote, especially on determining what criteria to set," Maximus said.

On the cleaning up of the electoral roll, Maximus said the EC has presented the committee with a CD which contains 42,051 names of 'dubious' voters.

"These names will be made displayed in public for verification," added Maximus.

Other suggestions in the interim which were confirmed to be implemented is disallowing the withdrawal of nominations and that the objection process on nomination day is annulled.

The formation of the PSC was annouced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in August, in the wake of a rally by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) on July 9 to press for electoral reforms.

The committee comprises nine MPs -- five from Barisan Nasional, three from the opposition, and one independent MP.

"After our final two public hearings in Kelantan (Jan 7 and 8) and Johor (Jan 12 and 13), we will concentrate on the implementation of the suggestions we have made, as well as make our reports on the suggestions that we have not decided on," Maximus added.

Set as favourite

Email This