Don't Go For Outdated Voting Procedures, Says Chia

PENANG, June 4 (Bernama) -- The current voting system is fair and efficient, and the Election Commission (EC) should opt for up-to-date technology rather than outdated methods if it wants to improve it further, Deputy Information Minister Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye said.

"We welcome any move to enhance the system but it doesn't mean that the EC should go for outdated procedures," he told a news conference on the Bukit Bendera family day carnival here Monday.

He was commenting on EC's plan to introduce the use of indelible ink and possibly transparent ballot boxes at the next general election to prevent cheating.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said on Friday that the use of indelible ink had been agreed to in principle.

On the 4.6 million eligible Malaysians who have yet to register as voters, Chia said the ministry, through Radio and Television Malaysia, would cooperate with the EC in organising a voter registration campaign.

On the carnival, he said it would take place at the Youth Park here Sunday. Among others, visitors will be able to register as voters at the EC counter and undergo health checks.

-- BERNAMA

Me : Now this is really weird. Indelible ink, though it might look outdated, have yet been the best solution to cleanse the image of corruption in Malaysia. Everytime during the GEs, there will be some special places where for no reason, there's tonnes of ballot papers which came by post that weren't expected by anyone. And that thing changed the election result dramatically, and the election is valid, for as long as no hard evidence is found giving a clue that the election was already rigged, hacked, corrupted.

If we are going for better election technology, that is always fine. Why not we use the India technique, where they used EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) to replace booth voting ?