Indelible ink to feature in GE14

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission (EC) will continue to use indelible ink in the 14th general election (GE14) with improvements, especially in terms of quality.

Deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said the use of indelible ink was decided by Parliamentary Select Committee and stated in the election laws.

“The indelible ink will be used with some improvements, especially in terms of quality. We will study the ingredients and put a standard on ink quality,” he told reporters after ‘ Hello Malaysia’ talk show on Bernama TV Monday night.

Action by certain parties who tried to blow up the issue by saying that the indelible ink could be easily removed was politically motivated.

Wan Ahmad said the indelible ink was to prevent voters from voting twice, but if it was lost, voters still could not vote again as the basis was the electoral roll.

“The people must understand that we (EC) are using the indelible ink for the first time and surely there are shortcomings. We have appointed a well known company to produce the ink for GE13.

“Some 250,000 bottles of indelible ink were booked two months before GE13, we stored them in police lockups for safekeeping. Probably due to long storage period, the ink content dropped and it became thinner.”

He slammed those who used bleach to remove the indelible ink wash and uploaded video on social networking sites to destroy the credibility of the EC.

About the alleged blackout during the counting process, Wan Ahmad said no such incident happened as he had confirmed it with all the returning officers.

“When I received information about the alleged blackout, I called the returning officers in all the states but was told no such thing occured.” — Bernama