Kimanis by-election: EC to introduce video cameras at polling streams

KIMANIS, Jan 14 -- The Election Commission (EC) today announced it will set up video cameras at all the polling streams in the Kimanis parliamentary by-election on Saturday as part of the reform  to improve the efficiency and transparency of elections.

Its chairman, Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun, said, however, that the use of the cameras will not undermine the confidentiality of the vote as the cameras will be installed far from the polling booths and the candidates’ agents will be present in the polling area.

He said the cameras are for the purpose of recording the entire polling process at the streams so that the EC can carry out a post-mortem to check whether everything was done according to procedure.

The cameras will be set up at all the 68 polling streams and will be operated by EC officers, he said in a statement.

“The footage from the cameras will also be used for monitoring quality, as reference for training and for improving the whole process of future elections,” he said.

Sabah UMNO Youth, in reacting to the EC statement, objected to the use of the cameras, saying voters will be afraid to vote for the candidate of their choice for fear that the cameras will show whom they picked.

Bernama then contacted Azhar who gave the assurance that the confidentiality of the vote would be safeguarded at all times and that the candidates’ agents will be in the vicinity of the polling booths.

The Kimanis by-election is a straight fight between Parti Warisan Sabah candidate Datuk Karim Bujang and Datuk Mohamad Alamin of Barisan Nasional.

Kimanis has 29,664 registered voters.

-- BERNAMA