PUTRAJAYA, 24 MAY, 2011: The Election Commission (EC) is considering three options to avoid the publicising of any unofficial results in the next general election following such incidents happening in the recent Sarawak state election.

Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said the three options were banning handphones from the tallying centers, imposing statutory declarations not to publicize any unofficial results, and all the ballot papers to be counted late or at 5pm although some polling centers might close early.

He said a decision on the matter would be made next month.

"From our experience in Sarawak, an irresponsible political party had not only announced the unofficial results, but also lied to the voters that the party had won the election.

"The false information was communicated through the handphone," he said in an interview in his office here.

Abdul Aziz regretted that such incidents happened in Sarawak recently because some polling centres closed earlier and counting of the votes followed immediately, "but the party's agents should have been ethical".

In Singapore, he said, not only the party's agents were not allowed to bring in their handphones but the voters too.

He said if such an irresponsible and unethical act was not checked, it could cause trouble in the coming general election.

"Before the EC makes the official announcement of the election results, no others can make such an announcement. This is about being responsible.

"The thing is, we allowed them in to witness the vote counting and tallying to show transparency, but they had misused that freedom for their own political interest," he added.


- Bernama