KUCHING: Voters who happen to lose their MyKad before the polling day can still cast their votes using their driving licence, passport or an official receipt of replacement of MyKad issued by the National Registration Department (JPN).
Assistant director of Election Academy Amar Soufwan Morazuki reminded voters that the Election Commission (EC) would not accept a police report to prove their identity at polling centres.
“By right, voters should come to the polling centres with their MyKad. But if they lose their MyKad right before polling, they can use their driving licence or passport or the receipt issued by JPN,” he said during a media briefing held at the RTM building here on Thursday.
On another note, Amar said polling officers would massage the fingers of voters before applying the indelible ink.
“It happened before that a voter used finger gloves to cast his vote in the morning and returned in the afternoon to accuse EC of foul play.
“This time around, we are going to massage the fingers of voters, just to check if they’re wearing finger gloves before applying indelible ink to their index finger.”
He said polling officers usually go for the left index finger when applying the indelible ink.
If a voter is without the left index finger, the officer will pick any finger from the left hand; if there are no fingers on the left, the right index finger will be used, he said.
He added that if no right index finger was available, any finger on the right hand would do.
“In the case that no fingers are available, the officer will apply indelible ink on the upper part of the voter’s hand.”
To a question, Amar said people had been misled during the blackout in the 2013 general election.
He said vote-counting would normally begin at 5.30pm, and would take an hour and a half to complete.
“The blackout happened in Pahang during the 2013 general election. By the time the counting was done, it was 7pm and in Peninsular Malaysia, it was not dark yet.
“It was warm and officers got sweaty due to the blackout but it was not dark. It was not possible for someone to move the whole ballot boxes or put in more ballot papers during the blackout especially with the presence of polling agents of the candidates,” he added.
According to him, more than 20 of the total election petitions filed after the 2013 general election came from the ruling coalition – Barisan Nasional. He said none of the election petitions filed were against the power outage.