The Election Commission (EC) is considering three options to avoid the publicising of any unofficial results in the next general election following such incidents happening in the recent Sarawak state election.
Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the three options were banning handphones from the tallying centres, imposing statutory declarations not to publicise any unofficial results, and all the ballot papers to be counted late or at 5pm although some polling centres might close early. He said a decision on the matter would be made next month.
“From our experience in Sarawak, an irresponsible political party had not only announced the unofficial results, but also lied to the voters that the party had won the election.
“The false information was communicated through the handphone,” he said in an interview in his office here.
Abdul Aziz regretted that such incidents happened in Sarawak recently because some polling centres closed earlier and counting of the votes followed immediately, “but the party’s agents should have been ethical”.
In Singapore, he said, not only the party’s agents were not allowed to bring in their handphones but the voters too.
Full Article: EC against publicising of unofficial election results.