IPOH: the Kuala Besut by-election will see various improvements in the election process, garnered from suggestions made during post-mortem meetings with its 13th General Election workers, said Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.
He said one improvement would be the use of coloured tags to identify candidates’ agents in the voting room, which would be different from those counting the votes.
“Currently, all tags are the same colour. We would not be able to tell if a candidate’s counting agent is in the voting room before 5pm, when they are not allowed to do so,” he said in a press conference after an appreciation dinner with election workers on Sunday.
Abdul Aziz said among the feedback he received from meetings in six states included having a more hands-on briefing session for workers.
They also suggested the use of video demonstrations compared to oral briefings currently, and to hold briefings as close as possible to election dates to kept information fresh in their minds.
Asked what would happen if PAS won the seat, equaling the number of seats held by Barisan Nasional, Abdul Aziz said the commission had no power to decide which party should form the government.
“Both parties should work out a compromise if there is a hung assembly.
“However, if neither party is willing to compromise, it could lead to a fresh election for the entire state,” he said.
Abdul Aziz said the commission would look at correcting the total number of seats in Parliament and state assemblies in its next re-delineation exercise.
The Kuala Besut state seat became vacant following the death of Umno’s Datuk Dr A. Rahman Mokhtar on June 26.
– THE STAR
