Voting Process
Postal voting for overseas Malaysians were conducted in various Malaysian representative offices around the world. According to the Election Commission (EC), 70% of 8,756 people who were eligible to vote overseas turned up to vote despite some teething problems.
Early voting was conducted for military, police personnel and their spouses in 544 polling centres throughout Malaysia. It was estimated that there were 270,000 of these voters in total. There have been several reports regarding the usage of indelible ink for early voters, with some claiming that the ink could be easily washed off. The Election Commission has promised to conduct investigations on this issue after a number of reports lodged by several opposition parties. On 2 May 2013, the EC held a public demonstration on the application of indelible ink. During this demonstration, the stain left behind by the ink was attempted to be washed off using various means, but without success. Addressing the earlier claims and reports of the stain being easily removed, EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar stated that this could be due to improper application procedures. He said that if the ink bottles were not thoroughly shook before use, the applied ink may contain insufficient quantities of silver nitrate, the compound used in the ink that leaves a permanent stain.
General voting began at 8.00 am on 5 May 2013 with a total of 13,268,002 Malaysians eligible to cast their ballots at 8,789 polling centres nationwide. Voter turnout is expected to be at an all-time high surpassing the 2008 election. As of 12 pm, 58.99% of voters have cast their ballots, nationwide. Voting closed at 5 pm however voters inside the polling stations are allowed to continue casting their ballots. Estimated turnout was 80%.
Read more about this topic: Next Malaysian General Election
Famous quotes containing the words voting and/or process:
“Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The moralist and the revolutionary are constantly undermining one another. Marx exploded a hundred tons of dynamite beneath the moralist position, and we are still living in the echo of that tremendous crash. But already, somewhere or other, the sappers are at work and fresh dynamite is being tamped in place to blow Marx at the moon. Then Marx, or somebody like him, will come back with yet more dynamite, and so the process continues, to an end we cannot foresee.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)