PUTRAJAYA: Come out in the morning to vote and do not forget to bring along your identity card.
That is the Election Commission’s (EC) advice to the 13.34 million eligible voters for the 13th general election that will come out in droves to vote come polling day on Sunday, May 5.
EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the weatherman had predicted fine weather in the morning but thunderstorms in some states in the afternoon.
Voters who have moved and changed their address on the identity card with the National Registration Department but had not applied for a change in their polling centre were still eligible to vote, he told a news conference at the EC headquarters.
“The law states clearly that voting is based on the registration of a voter, whereby the name of the voter remains in the register and the polling centre would be changed only after he or she applied to the EC to do so.
“Such voters can check to verify their polling centre,” he said.
Abdul Aziz advised voters not to give up their ballot papers to third parties on the pretext of ensuring the confidentiality of their vote.
“The EC wishes to stress that the vote is secret and the EC clerk is not authorised to place any mark on the ballot paper or against the name on the electoral roll.
“The EC clerk does not know who is waiting in queue to vote and the voters do not come according to the sequence of names in the electoral roll,” he said.
He explained that the serial number was to facilitate verification by the EC clerk of the number of ballot papers in a book of 50 sheets.
Abdul Aziz advised the elderly not to allow anyone to mark their fingers with ink before voting.
He said the EC clerk at the polling centre would check the left index finger of a voter to ensure that there was no ink mark before marking the finger with the indelible ink.
“If a voter refuses to allow his or her finger to be marked with the ink, no ballot paper will be issued,” he said.
Abdul Aziz said that if the ballot paper was smudged with indelible ink, a replacement could be requested from the presiding officer.
“However, the presiding officer has to be satisfied that the ballot paper was not intentionally defaced,” he said.
