Excerpt from MalaysiaKini website:
During his observation, Mafrel northern region coordinator BK Ong discovered that all the army and police personnel were required to fill up a separate identity declaration form consisting of their name, identity card number and ballot paper' serial number prior to voting.
Although voting was carried out privately, each voter was compelled to enclose together both his ballot paper and identity declaration form inside the postal vote envelope before putting it into the ballot bag.
Upon checking the postal vote envelope, the identity declaration form will clearly reveal the identity of the voter and who he had voted for.
"Voting secrecy is among the most fundamental principles of the democratic process. It should not be compromised," Ong said.
Under provisions stipulated in Section 5 Part II of the Election Offences Act 1954, one is prohibited from obtaining or revealing the identity of voters and their votes, such as names, identity card numbers and ballot paper serial numbers.
The country has 220,000 postal votes.
Another serious flaw noted in the election process for army and police personnel is that the voting was managed and conducted by police and army officers themselves.
Although EC officials and appointed agents shall handle the voting process, Ong expressed shock that this did not happen in the army and police bases.
"EC officials and agents were nowhere around," he claimed.
Vote without fear or retribution? Think again.
No comments:
Post a Comment