KUCHING, March 15: The Election Commission (EC) stands by its word to uphold integrity during election periods, regardless whether candidates are under the Barisan Nasional (BN) flag or the opposition.
EC’s Election Academy (Akademi Pilihanraya or EA) assistant director Amer Soufwan Morazuki said there has been widespread perception that the EC is working for BN, but in actual fact after Parliament is dissolved, there will be no ruling party in the government.
Speaking during a media briefing at RTM’s Sarawak headquarters at Jalan P Ramlee in Kuching this morning, he said even BN also submitted petitions after each election where the party would state their discontent with the commission.
“From the last general election (GE), we received 65 petitions. More than 20 are from BN. This shows that we are non-partisan.
“In fact if BN commits an offence against the commission’s Act, action will be taken against them,” said Amer.
Some 100 members of the media attended the state media election briefing, in which they participated in a demonstration of how the polling process would be carried out for the coming GE.
Sarawak is the fifth state to have its media briefing by the EC after Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Selangor. This would be followed next week by Sabah, Perlis, Pulau Pinang and Kedah.
Amer also explained that allegations that EC is cosorting with certain political parties to rig the ballot box was absurd because the voting slips have been counted in front of agents from various political parties at the polling stations, the figures recorded in a form and signed by the polling station’s head from EC, and the figures distributed to the agents before the ballot box is transported to the tallying station.
“Then at the tallying station, all the votes from various polling stations will be added up and checked before they are announced.
“So, for people to allege that the ballot boxes may have been switched during transport is absurd, because they(voting slips) have been counted at the polling station and the agents from all parties got the figures. Even if the ballot box is missing, the figures are already recorded and the agents and EC officers have copies of them,” he said. — DayakDaily
