USING THUMB IDENTIFICATION: Abdul Aziz (left) gestures to reporters as he explains about the biometric system. Next to him is Takun.
KUCHING: Phantom voters will no longer ‘exist’ in electoral lists once the biometric system is used to verify registered voters’ identity, said Election Commission (SPR) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.
“Over the years, SPR has been receiving allegations and accusations on the existence of phantom voters and it has never stopped.
“In fact there is no end to this. This system will demolish its existence,” he told a press conference after chairing a briefing on the biometric system, postmortem on the recently-concluded state election and SPR’s monthly meeting yesterday.
He added that the system was not a new invention as it was presently used by the Home Ministry, National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) Immigrations and Police.
Abdul Aziz also pointed out to claims that some voters voted more than once and allegations of the existence of dead voters’ names in the electoral roll.
Saying that SPR had tried to use indelible ink, Abdul Aziz said the move had to be shelved as the system unfortunately could not accurately determine the identity of voters.
“For SPR, we just want to see the documents, whether the bearer of the identification card (IC) is genuine, carried by the owner and not forged. Voters also cannot carry other voters’ IC and register for that matter. By this way voters cannot cheat the system,” he said.
Abdul Aziz said the system would be a standalone, whereby it would not be connected to online networking to prevent it from being sabotaged.
“The system will have no networking and stand alone. It would be very expensive to make it online as well.”
He said the introduction of the system was part of an effort mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to seek the best possible way for a fair and just election process in the country.
He added that the system was on its final phase and more trial tests and demos would be conducted to ensure its smoothness.
However, Abdul Aziz said it needed to be further enhanced before it could be used for the coming general elections, indicating a mock election would be conducted soon to test its efficiency.
To a question, he said SPR welcomed queries from individuals, groups or political parties who want to know more about the system, adding it had a fruitful meeting with Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) leaders recently.
“They (PAS) are fully supporting the idea and soon more political parties will come and discuss with us,” he said.
The cost of the system has yet to be determined.
State SPR chairman Takun Sunggah was among those present during the press conference.