PETALING JAYA, June 28 — The Election Commission (EC) may add more silver nitrate to the election ink to be used for the Kuala Besut by-election, to boost its strength after suffering red faces over the fallibility of their electoral fraud prevention measure in the May 5 polls.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof admitted recently that the indelible ink used in the 13^th general election was a “failure”, expressing disappointment with widespread reports of the ink being washed off easily with as little as soap and water.

“Learn from experience of GE13. Must do much better,” Abdul Aziz told The Malay Mail Online today.

He added that the EC will soon decide on the amount of silver nitrate in one of the main safeguards against electoral fraud.

Abdul Aziz said last May that the strength of the indelible ink - which is meant to prevent double voting - used in the May 5 polls differed from those used in other countries because of Malaysia’s halal and health regulations.

He pointed out that the Health Ministry had prohibited the content of silver nitrate from exceeding one per cent for safety reasons.

PAS MP Dr Hatta Ramli questioned yesterday the government’s contradictory replies in Parliament on the contents of the indelible ink used in Election 2013.

The Kuala Krai MP pointed out that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim had said in a written reply to his question that the indelible ink contained silver nitrate at a level of one per cent.

However, Shahidan said in a separate written reply to Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng that the indelible ink did not contain chemicals, but only permitted food colouring.

The Kuala Besut state seat in Terengganu fell vacant after Barisan Nasional (BN) representative Dr A. Rahman Mokhtar died on Wednesday from lung cancer, triggering a by-election that will decide the fate of the east coast state.

The BN and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) currently hold 16 and 15 seats respectively in the 32-seat state legislative assembly in Terengganu.

If PAS wins the Kuala Besut by-election, Terengganu will have the country’s first hung assembly in history. The Islamist party ruled Terengganu for one term from 1999 to 2004.