It is one of the 5 major changes to election regulations to be implemented in coming general election
KUCHING: The revised Elections (Conduct of Election) Regulations 1981 contain five major changes and they will be implemented starting with the coming general election.
Before the revision, the minimum campaigning period was seven days, and now it has been lengthened to 11 days.
This means that for the fast-approaching polls, voters will experience a slightly longer campaigning period because the campaigning period for many past elections was only 10 days.
State Election Commission (EC) director Datu Takun Sunggah told The Borneo Post yesterday that another major change was that handicapped voters are now allowed to bring along a party member to assist them.
“Previously, only one individual can accompany them but he/she had to be their next-of-kin. Now, anyone, including a party member, can accompany them to assist them to pen their vote,” said Takun.
The third major change is the doing away with objection time after nomination.
In previous polls, one hour is reserved as ‘objection time’ to enable the public to file objections against any nominated candidates.
“Since objection time is now done away with, it means there would be no display of nominated candidates’ details after nomination closed,” he said.
Another key change is that the time for candidates to withdraw has been shortened to a mere one hour.
“Previously, candidates can withdraw three days after nomination, but now if they wanted to withdraw, it must be within the submission hour.
“Submission will be carried from 9am to 10am like before. Anyone who wanted to opt out will have to do so within that hour.
“If they opted out, their deposits will be refunded, but after the one hour passed, they cannot withdraw anymore,” said Takun, adding that all these changes were recommended by the Parliament Select Committee and agreed upon by representatives from both political divides.
The coming polls would also see polling centres opened three days earlier for uniformed personnel and their spouses in their vicinity and not in schools, said Takun.
As voting is done three days earlier, the ballot boxes would be sealed and kept in police lock-ups to prevent tampering. It will be opened only during counting time.
Takun said because the stakes are high and suspicion of foul play would come into the picture, there could be requests from some party agents to sleep over at the lock-ups for three days.
But police standard operating procedure (SOP) requires inmates to strip to mere underwear to prevent them from using their clothes to hang themselves in lock-ups.
So, the question is do party agents who want to guard the ballot boxes for three days have to abide by this SOP?
“The police will have to decide whether party agents can sleep in lock-ups as lock-ups are in police stations,” said Takun.
When contacted, state police chief Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani, who was on his way to Bukit Aman, said he would have to refer to Bukit Aman before giving an official statement on these issues – whether they are allowed to sleep over at lock-ups and, if so, whether they needed to strip.