Ec lists friendly icons

Independent candidates now have a choice of 30 ‘modern’ ones

The coming polls are certain to be hard-fought, but the Election Commission has come up with 30 “friendly” icons for independent candidates to choose from. Only seven symbols from the previous list of 20 have been retained, with the rest deemed to have negative connotations.

PETALING JAYA: The Election Commission (EC) has come up with 30 “modern and friendly” symbols for independent candidates to choose from for the coming polls. Only seven items from the previous list of 20 have been retained.

EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said the 23 new symbols are “more modern, friendly and easier to outline”.

Icons dropped are the head of a tiger, a pair of scissors, a shoe, smoking pipe, umbrella, rooster, bicycle, bus, tractor, typewriter, kite, top and an oil palm.

“We dropped certain symbols because they carry negative connotations.

“A tiger represents fierceness, shoes are unclean while scissors are used in the Malay proverb gunting dalam lipatan (the enemy within),” he said, adding that the pipe was removed as smoking is a health hazard.

Bicycle, bus, tractor and typewriter were done away with to denote the changing times, he told The Star.

Wan Ahmad said the umbrella was taken out because it would not be fair to bar people from carrying an umbrella on polling day.

The 23 new icons include rabbit, prawn, bird, elephant, horse. ring, necktie and a pair of spectacles. The others are a bag, shirt, motorcycle, car, sampan, glass, cup, kettle, table, house, television set, pen, flower, hoe and tree, which replaces the oil palm.

The old symbols maintained, some with minor changes, are book, fish, alarm clock, chair, aeroplane, telephone and key.

“We have modernised the telephone from the dial to the press button type. We have reduced the bunch of three keys to a single key,” said Wan Ahmad.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said independent candidates must choose from the list of gazetted symbols.

“We do not allow them to create their own symbols,” he added.

Abdul Aziz said the EC had no plans to include more symbols although the 13th general election is likely to attract a large number of independent candidates.

“It is not necessary to create more symbols because a symbol that a candidate chooses can be used by other candidates contesting in other areas,” he said.