NST: 06 March, 2008
PUTRAJAYA: Election Commission secretary Datuk Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor has appealed to everyone not to blame the EC for its decision not to use indelible ink this general election. He said it was unfortunate that the EC had “overlooked” the law when it announced that the ink would be used to prevent multiple voting.
“It is so unlucky that this came about in the last few days before polling day, but, please, don’t blame the EC.”
He said the EC would dispose of the ink (costing RM2.4 million) through barter trade. He did not say what the EC would be buying.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan also revealed on Tuesday that four people – all businessmen – were under investigation for buying the indelible ink from neighbouring countries and planning to use them on unsuspecting voters to create chaos on polling day.
Yesterday, Musa elaborated on the police probe, saying that investigations showed that they could not dismiss the claims of a plot to disrupt polling.
Meanwhile, the commission said it expects the first results of the general election to come in by 7.30pm, 21/2 hours after polling.
Kamaruzaman said: “We are trying our best to make this general election the best so far. Our machinery is almost 100 per cent ready and all our 21,000 workers have been trained.”
On claims of 85,000 phantom voters in Kelantan and Terengganu by the opposition, Kamaruzaman said there was no such thing.
“These (85,000) are not phantom voters but people of Kelantan and Terengganu who live or work in other states.
“They are registered voters who had moved to other states but did not change their old addresses.”
On security arrangements for polling, Kamaruzaman said the EC had requested for additional police personnel.
He also warned those planning to stop people from voting that they could be arrested and charged under the Election Offences Act 1954.
Pas has threatened to resort to violence if phantom voters were brought to Kelantan and Terengganu on polling day.