KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 ― Malaysians can rest easy that their vote is secret as there are no markings in the ballot paper that can be traced back to their names, the Elections Academy said today.
The Academy, which is under the Election Commission's operations division and was launched in January 2007, was responding to a claim spreading through WhatsApp that confidentiality of their vote is at risk due to the use of pencils for the ballot paper, which can then be traced to a particular voter.
“Votes are definitely confidential and untraceable, because the serial number for ballots and the order of the names in the name list are different.
“Furthermore, there will be agents from multiple political parties monitoring, if these agents discover any suspicious signs, they have the right to request to inspect the ballot, and can also raise objections,” the academy's spokesman was quoted telling Chinese-language vernacular paper Sin Chew Daily.
The spokesman stressed that it would not be possible to trace a voter's identity based on the ballot paper's serial number alone.
According to message on WhatsApp, election workers would allegedly use pencils to mark down numbers behind their ballot papers, with each number representing each individual and which would purportedly mean voting is not confidential.
The Whatsapp message had urged voters to bring an eraser and remove such numbers if spotted on their ballot papers.
But the Elections Academy said the scenario outlined in the Whatsapp message would not happen, as both voters and election workers are now only allowed to use pens.
“Previously, workers at the polling stations did use pencils in their duties, but from the last elections, we already set the requirement to not use pencils,” the spokesman was quoted saying.
“We will not stop voters from bringing in pencils, pens or erasers, voters can also use their own pens to cast their votes. That is not a problem,” the spokesman said, adding that voters could carry other items with them as long as it was not knives or weapons.
