KUCHING: The proposed voting mechanism by the Election Reform Committee (ERC) to help rural folks vote in Sarawak must be transparent and should not significantly differ from conventional methods.
In stating this yesterday, Batang Sadong MP Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said ERC must provide adequate training to volunteers, party members and relevant parties as soon as the proposal is adopted.
“I applaud the ERC’s initiative and hope that it can be implemented prior to the Sarawak state election in 2021 as a form of ‘dry-run’ to GE15,” she said.
According to her, the mechanism must not be a form of ‘special votes’. She said it should be clearly spelt out as ‘special vote-casting mechanism’ whereas vote weightage remains the same — one eligible citizen shall cast one vote.
“I fully support that everyone should have the opportunity to vote. Those residing in rural areas should have the same accessibility as their counterparts in urban areas,” she said.
Nancy went on to point out that all this while, voters in rural areas were given the same opportunity and treatment by the Election Commission.
She said all polling booths, no matter the number of voters they served, enjoyed similar facilities, thus any new system must be better than the current one.“ I would like to add that the award of the contract to implement the system must be transparent as well.
“We have the duty to ensure all systems are rig-proof; there should be no risk of rigging,” she stressed. Nancy believed that the state government would be ready to assist and share information with the ERC on the ways of accessing rural voters so that the ERC can improve on its system.
“To be fair to all sides there should also be a check-and-balance system by the government and opposition appointed party representative to oversee the implementation of such system as has been practised all these years.
“Whatever mechanism introduced, as long as it is proven to be fair and just for all should be acceptable,” she added.
