Election Reform - CCTV recording or photographing voters when the identify themself and get the ballot papers

Check the MyKad and you get a ballot paper to vote – and the attitude of the EC and the police is that so long as you have a MyKad, you get to vote. So ‘PHANTOM VOTERS’ also easily get to vote. This is unacceptable. 

How do we, the police, the EC  identify these 'phantom voters', be it people using forged 'MyKads', having 'temporary' Mykads which may be just new or tampered say like changing the 'picture' to match that of the bearer, etc. Now, if there were CCTV recordings or photo documentation of all voters, we would certainly help the investigation/s that will result in the arrest of the said 'phantom voter', and maybe even to the arrest and persecutions to those of assisted and/or facilitated this.

SUGGESTION FOR IMPROVEMENTS

1 – CCTV recording of the voter, who will required to hold up their Mykad when the take their ballot papers. [Alternatively, every voter with their MyKad is photographed] 

Now, when the real voter comes and finds that someone else has come to vote, he is denied his/her vote. – There must be immediate investigation by the EC and/or the police to find the perpetrator of this crime, and here CCTV recordings and photos would help the investigation. Also will be useful for Election Petitions.

No such person exist – having died or just never existed, or maybe even did not take the time to come vote – again CCTV records and photographs will help the investigations.

Note:- 

a) These CCTV Recordings and Photo records shall be furnished to the contesting candidates. 

b) CCTV Recordings and photographs only when the voter identifies themselves and collect their ballot paper, not when they go to cast their votes. Who they vote is always secret and privacy must be respected.

2.    Even banks require their customer to place their finger in a machine, which verifies also that the person is who he/she says they are as contained in the MyKad – this should also be done during elections.

3.     CCTV recordings from the sealing of the ballot box, opening of the ballot box and during the counting process, and thereafter the re-sealing of it to be transported to the main centre.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek proposed to the Election Commission to allow live video feeds of the vote counting process at polling stations during the Kuala Besut by-election.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said he will try to convince the EC to do so and find out if RTM had the capability of doing so.

"The counting of votes begins at 5pm. Should there be a blackout and if there (are people who ask) where and when it happened, they can view it live (on television)," he said. - Malaysiakini, 4/7/2013, Gov't mulls live telecast of vote count

I thought that was a very GOOD suggestion, that will everyone to be able to monitor the counting process...though it may be difficult when the counting is now done is so many different rooms, i.e. the rooms that people cast their votes.

But alas, the EC rejected the 'idea' 

Shabery 'sad but respects' EC's nay to live counting

Koh Jun Lin 12:32PM Jul 14, 2013

KUALA BESUT Kuala Besut Communications and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek says he is "saddened but respects" the Election Commission's (EC) not to allow the state broadcaster RTM to air the Kuala Besut by-election's ballot counting process.

"We have discussed and I have stated my stance that the people needs to see the process ‘live' because many do not understand (the process), but the EC has its own considerations.

"Since the EC is an independent body, I can't order them," he said at a press conference today after inspecting the Kuala Besut media centre set up by his ministry for reporters covering the by-election.

However, he said state media organisations would continue to provide coverage for other aspects of the by-election, including the latest official tally of the votes.

Shabery (right) had previously mooted for the live broadcast, saying, "Should there be a blackout and if there (are people who ask) where and when it happened, they can view it live (on television)."

However, EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof responded that this is unnecessary because there are already counting agents representing each candidate at every polling station, and the EC would have to accommodate similar requests from other media agencies if it allows RTM to air the process.

To a question, Shaberry said he has no issues for RTM to provide coverage for PAS' campaign trail.

"No problem, I would leave it to RTM, but for other media and papers, I don't know.

"For other papers, I have given instructions to give coverage to what they think has news value. Professional consideration must be given, not the minister's consideration, based on news value," he said.

He added that RTM already provides live broadcast of parliamentary debates for all parties, and this shows that it is willing provide coverage to anything of news value.

'Shy to ask'

PAS Kuala Besut by-election director Husam Musa had told the media the he hopes for RTM's coverage during a press conference on nomination day.

"Don't just show footage but have some soundbites; good ones. But we are too shy to ask because that is exclusively for the ruling party," he said in a sarcastic tone.

Husam (right) had also claimed that BN Kuala Besut deputy by-election director Idris Jusoh and Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Said are at odds, and a PAS victory here would undermine Ahmad's position and benefit Idris.

When asked about this, Shabbery said this is an old trick that nobody is falling for.

He said a similar tactic was used during the Galas by-election of 2010 to give the impression that the then BN campaign director Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Umno Kelantan chief Mustapha Mohamad were at odds.

"Thank God that not only we won, we won again with a larger majority in the parliamentary constituency of Gua Musang (which encompasses Galas) in the general election after that.

"Therefore the issue of who takes what position are not the main issues in Besut," he said, while adding that there are many Umno leaders from here who are big names, but this is not the case for PAS.

Meanwhile at a separate press conference at the local PAS headquarters, its central election director Dr Hatta Ramli said the party would not use Umno's internal conflicts to campaign.

Husam had also reportedly clarified that he did not mean to pit the two Umno leaders against each other.

Additional reporting by Lee Long Hui. - Malaysiakini, 14/7/2013, Shabery 'sad but respects' EC's nay to live counting