Commission to ink voters in next general election

PUTRAJAYA: Voters will have their left forefinger applied with indelible ink in the next general election to prevent fraud.

Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said the “archaic” method would be used to satisfy some quarters that claimed fraud had taken place.

“This is merely to stop certain quarters from using the issue as a political gimmick or to tarnish the image of the commission,” he told reporters here yesterday.

The black ink from India, which would cost less than RM1mil to implement, can stay on the finger for about a month.

It is not applicable to postal voters.

Abdul Rashid said no amendments would be made to the law in using the ink, which is a pilot project, as it could be incorporated as a procedure.

Explaining the process of using the ink, he said, the first election clerk would verify the voter's identification.

The second clerk would then apply the ink on the voter's finger before the third clerk hands over the ballot paper.

“Those who do not have fingers would have the ink applied on the stump instead,” he said, hoping that women would not use nail polish when voting.

Among the alleged fraud were phantom voters using identity cards of the deceased whose name was still on the electoral roll; impersonation by using another person’s identity card; and voting twice at two different places by registering using the eight-digit and 12-digit identity cards respectively.

Abdul Rashid thanked the National Fatwa Council for responding quickly to EC’s application to study the implications of the indelible ink on Muslims.

He said a circular would be out soon to explain the indelible ink to political parties.

Abdul Rashid said that only one of the 22,433 voters registered under the eight-digit identity card whose names were displayed by the EC last month had come forward to verify the status.

The Treasury, he said, had allocated RM3.6mil for the EC to trace the remaining 22,432 based on the locality they first registered as voters.

The exercise, he said, would take about a month from September to complete and names that could not be traced would be struck off the roll.

He said the electoral roll now stood at 10,322,956.

Brilliant idea from a chicken brain ! How can the guys from suruhan be so stupid?