SHAH ALAM, 24 May: The Election Commission (EC) allegedly did not clear instructions to polling agents (PACA) causing confusion in the 13th General Election (GE-13) process.
A PACA agent who only wants to be known as Rizuan claimed that he was not given enough training by the EC before the GE-13 process started making it possible for the election results to be manipulated by certain parties.
Rizuan who was on duty at the Batu Melintang School in Tapah, Perak during the GE-13 said that the EC should have provided more practical training to PACE agents who were mostly new faces and did not have experience working in previous elections.
“In terms of the first lesson, more training should have been provided to help carry out the task but unfortunately, there were no practical training. They only gave kits and files to be read.
“For the second lesson, a day before the GE-13, I was instructed to start work at three to five in the evening. However, I was a counting agent and surely I would only start work at five in the evening. Even here there were shortcomings,” he claimed.
Rizuan said this in an interview with the Community Communication Centre (KOMAS) organised by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH 2.0) recently.
In similar developments, the EC stated that the GE-13 is among the best in the world because it is guided by the practice of democracy, with the people determining the party worthy to rule.
However, the EC failed to provide a strong case on several claims such as the use of the indelible ink which is not permanent, phantom voters and a dubious electoral roll.
Meanwhile, a lawyer, Selva Kumaran also claimed that many Voting Centre Heads (KPM) were also not thoroughly briefed causing some confusion to arise.
He said, according to the Elections Act 1958, the KPM has the power to determine and decide on certain things that happen during the polling process.
“If there are unexpected issues, the KPM will only do what they remember from the briefing attended,” he said.