By Christine T
KUCHING, Nov 6: Voters across all 82 State constituencies in Sarawak will have their attendance recorded through an automated system at the 13th Sarawak Election, says Election Commission (EC) chairman Dato Sri Ramlan Harun.
He announced this at a press conference following a special meeting to determine the key dates for the Sarawak Election 2026, which he chaired at the Hilton Hotel here today.
“For the 13th Sarawak State Election, the EC has also decided to expand the implementation of its Optical Character Recognition – Voter Attendance (OCR-VA) pilot project to all polling streams at every polling centre across the 82 State constituencies in Sarawak,” he said.
In a separate statement issued after the press conference, the EC said the system automatically records and marks voters’ attendance by scanning information on their identification documents, speeding up the verification and attendance recording process while improving the efficiency of polling staff on election day.
The EC said the implementation of the OCR-VA pilot project is part of its efforts to digitalise the electoral process without changing the existing voting procedures.
“Voters will still be required to attend their respective polling centres as usual, present their identification documents to polling staff for verification, and proceed with voting according to the existing procedures,” it added.
Meanwhile, the EC will continue broadcasting selected election processes at designated polling centres and polling streams through its official Facebook page.
The live broadcasts will also include unofficial election results after polling closes, in line with the practice adopted during previous elections.
The OCR-VA system was initially trialled during state elections in Negeri Sembilan, including at DUN Ampangan, and is being expanded for use in upcoming state elections in Melaka and Sarawak. —DayakDaily
