KUALA LUMPUR: Saying that the general election is “almost here”, Najib Razak said the Election Commission (EC) had been hard at work implementing safeguards to ensure the rakyat's voice was represented as accurately as possible. The prime minister cited three initiatives carried out by the commission that particularly stood out, namely efforts to keep the electoral roll accurate and up-to-date, postal voting for Malaysians living a considerable distance overseas, and the use of indelible ink. In an entry titled, ‘Ensuring Free and Fair Election' on his 1Malaysia blogsite Tuesday, Najib said, keeping the electoral roll accurate was meant to prevent potential fraud and impersonation by phantom voters. “Campaigns have been launched to further engage voters in verifying their names in the roll and cross-checking with their identity card numbers,” he said. He said postal voting for Malaysians living abroad, in places ranging from Australia and the United Kingdom to China and Qatar, would allow them to exercise their voting rights. “Also, advance voting has been implemented for those within the country who have other duties to perform on polling day, allowing them to vote several days earlier,” Najib said. The compulsory use of indelible ink, he said, was to identify those who had voted. “These are just some of the initiatives that have been put into place to prepare for the momentous exercise in democracy we are about to undertake. “I have also done my part as a political leader by signing Transparency International s Election Integrity pledge, and I will ensure that all Barisan Nasional candidates honor this agreement, too,” he noted. The prime minister said it was now up to the people to ensure that they were prepared for the coming election. BN
