No double or more voting - EC




MELAKA, May 4 (Bernama) -- The issue of casting votes twice or more is very unlikely to occur in the 14th General Election (GE14) as the Election Commission (EC) will not compromise on any individual who attempts to do such moves, said EC deputy chairman Tan Sri Othman Mahmood.

He said the matter would not take place as the names of voters who have already cast their votes would be struck off the list and the EC would implement special screening to prevent them from voting for the second time.

"Each Malaysian has only one identification card and a thorough review will be conducted during the polling day apart from using indelible, and we will refer to the rules set by the EC if there are individuals who have the intention of cheating and disguise themselves to vote twice.

"I believe voters in GE14 are mature and we hope that there will be no issue of casting votes twice," he told reporters after carrying out checks on the ballot boxes for early voting at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Tanjong, Tanjung Kling, here today.

He said this when referring to an incident in GE13 as reported by a portal that a 23-year-old man from Kuantan claimed that he managed to get a ballot paper for the second time after removing the indelible ink from his finger.

Othman also gave assurance that the use of indelible ink on a voter's finger who has already voted, could not be able to be erased 100 per cent even if it was washed thoroughly.

"The ink will not disappear totally and it will be visible for about a week," he said.

Meanwhile, he also advised voters to cast their votes early due to uncertain weather factors that would likely affect movement and comfort of voters at polling centres.

"It is a huge loss for the people should they miss the polling period from 8am to 5pm because the general election only happens once in every five years," he said.

According to the EC's fourth quarter electoral roll 2017, gazetted on April 10, a total of 300,255 early voters will be voting tomorrow, comprising 172,351 military personnel and their spouses and another 127,904 who are police personnel and their spouses.

-- BERNAMA