Cranky Thoughts & Muses

All I wanna say “PLEASE VOTE WISELY!!!”

Don’t vote for the wrong party just because the world is saying this. Vote with confidence. Vote not because of sweet talks but vote because you TRULY believe and have FAITH in the party you’re voting for.

Go here and check if you’re a registered voter.

UPDATED

_{Malaysiakini.com
14 February 2008}

The Election Commission (EC) today announced that the 12th general election will be held on March 8, a Saturday coinciding with the school holidays. Nomination day is fixed on Feb 24, a Sunday.

This means the parties would be getting a longer campaigning period of 13 days. In 2004, the campaigning period was only for eight days - the shortest period in the history of the nation’s elections.

The significance of the number 13 is not lost among political pundits as it happens to be the Barisan Nasional chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s favourite number.

Earlier the number 13 had also played a significant role in this general election when Abdullah, in his capacity as the prime minister, announced the dissolution of the Parliament on Feb 13.

The dissolution of Parliament came about 15 months before the five-year term of the Barisan Nasional ends in May next year.

New measures to be introduced

The much-awaited announcement today was made by EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman to a horde of journalists at the EC headquarters in Putrajaya this morning. He had earlier chaired an one-hour meeting with the EC members.

“We have been informed by the National Palace on the dissolution of the Parliament yesterday and at the same time have received the notice of the dissolution of 12 state legislative assemblies except for Sarawak,” he told the specially arranged press conference.

Abdul Rashid said 10,922,139 voters were eligible to cast their votes based on the electoral roll gazetted on Feb 5. Out of this, 221,085 are postal voters, majority of whom are police and army personnel.

However the EC chief was not sure when the postal votes would be sent out. Likewise he was not sure on the number of contesting political parties in the coming election.

Since the last election in 2004, the number of parliamentary seats have been increased to 222 - due to three additional seats being created in Sarawak, while the number of state seats remained at 505.

Sarawak, which had held state elections on May 20, 2006, will only see contests for parliamentary seats this time around.

Poser over indelible ink

Several new implementations are to be introduced in the upcoming election in the EC’s bid to ensure a smoother and fairer election. These include the use of transparent ballot boxes, indelible ink and a new ruling to control the poster war.

However, Abdul Rashid today refused to elaborate on details of these new measures, saying the EC would be holding other press conferences in the near future on these measures.

Also for this general election, the serial number on the counterfoil of the ballot papers will be removed, departing from previous practices.

This new safety measure was first implemented during the 2006 Sarawak state election to curb fears of voters that their identity could be traced.

Asked to confirm on the use of indelible ink in the coming election, the EC chief replied: “I will talk about that later. The procedures-procedures are not (main topic) in this session, we are more interested in the (election) dates.”

Pressed again, he retorted: “Did I say cancel? I will call you if there is any change.”

There have been concerns over the introduction of these new measures, since the election laws have not been amended to make them legally binding.

Sufficient campaigning period

The EC chief also vehemently denied persisting claims of electoral irregularities by the oppositions and electoral reform bodies like Bersih.

“There are a lot of lies happening,” said Abdul Rashid, who will be conducting the general election for the sixth time, his last before retirement later this year.

On demands from the pressure groups for a campaigning period not less than 21 days, he replied: “It has been more than sufficient… I have been very fair, don’t ask for more.”

He also said that the 13-day campaign period was adequate for all the political parties contesting in the polls.

He added that the commission took into account internal security and public order when deciding on the campaign period.

He called on the voters to exercise their civic rights to vote on the polling day and expected the voters’ turnout to remain between 74-75 percent, the average of previous turnout.

The EC will be assisted by a strength of 149,000 trained workers and some 50,000 helpers in this election. An allocation of RM200 million has been provided for it to run the election.

‘No election glitches this time’

On the nomination day, candidates can file their nomination paper between 9-10am while the objection period is between 10am and 11am.

On the polling day, the nationwide polling centres will open from 8am-5pm. Polling agents who represent the contesting candidates are continued to be barred from monitoring the postal voting.

Abdul Rashid also assured today that election glitches such as the one happened in Gombak, Selangor during the last election which resulted in the polling hours to be extended will not happen again.

Chaos broke out at polling stations in the Gombak parliamentary constituency then due to hundreds of voters’ names missing from the electoral roll.

In the election held on March 21, 2004, the BN emerged a clear winner with 199 of the 219 parliamentary seats, and 453 of the 505 state seats. It took 63.9 percent of the vote.

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