COMMENT | In January 2013, a group of Orang Asli voters from Perak protested at the Perak Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) office over a voter education event that was held for the Orang Asli community in Tapah.

According to Malaysiakini, Perak Pakatan Rakyat who was part of the protest claimed that the event attendees were forced to mark a dummy ballot in favour of BN in front of a Jakoa officer and a BN assemblyperson. Then BN Air Kuning assemblyperson Samsudin Abu Hassan explained that the event’s goal was to reduce rejected ballots among the Orang Asli.

Seven years later, electoral watchdog Bersih’s Inclusive Electoral Reforms in Malaysia report highlighted poor voter education among the Orang Asli, with anecdotal evidence that voters from the community may not know how to cross the ballot correctly.

Both accounts point to an unfortunate fact - almost seven decades since the country’s first national election in 1955, rejected votes are still prevalent among the Orang Asli.

To gauge the severity of the issue, Tindak Malaysia, an NGO specialising in electoral reform, has...