The new online system introduced by the embattled Election Commission (EC) today is nowhere near its purpose of ‘exorcising phantom voters’ as claimed by the commission yesterday.
Yesterday the EC deputy chief, Wan Ahmad Wan Omar , said the new system allows voters to see which other voters are registered at their home addresses.
In the event that dubious voters are detected through the system, the voter who is legitimately registered at that address can lodge a complaint online.
Malaysiakini
tested the
new system
and found out that it cannot perform the function as claimed by Wan Ahmad.
The only new feature is that the user can now check the polling details of more than one person at the same time. The old version only allows one entry at one time.
However, a user must key in the person’s MyKad number to check the polling details.
One cannot key in an address to check whether there are other voters registered at that address.
"This system provides the facility to check the detail of more than a voter at the same time.
"It enables voters who reside in the same house or registered with the same address, to verify whether they are registered in the same parliamentary constituency, state constituency, polling district and locality," reads a description published on the webpage that hosts the new system.
Election watchdog Malaysian Election Observation Network (MEO-Net) coordinator Ong Boon Keong
(left)
, commented that the new system is no different from the old version.
"What we need is a system that allows us to search the polling details by using parameters other than the MyKad number, such as addresses," he said when contacted today.
Ong cited the examples of utility bill payment systems adopted by Tenaga Nasional Bhd and water supply operators, which allow users to access their accounts with address or telephone number if they forget their account number.
"We have raised this suggestion to the EC a few years ago, but they rejected it, saying that it is very expensive to upgrade the system.
"Actually, it is not something very difficult or expensive to do. It is just a matter of whether they have the will to do it.
"They have the tendency to suppress information from the public," Ong added.
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