Voters can bring other documents to prove their identity, including international passports. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — Voters who lost their identity cards (MyKad) can still vote by bringing along a copy of the report on the loss of their identification document for identity verification on polling day, said Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

He said voters could also bring their driving licence, limited-validity or international passports which contained their name, identity card number and their picture to verify their identification.

The vote of every Malaysian is deeply appreciated and in a democracy, nothing or nobody can prevent a Malaysian from voting, from voting, he said.

“Everyone’s vote is secret and nobody will know, except the voters themselves. unless the voter himself tells others,” Mohd Hashim told Bernama recently.

On the concern by some voters that the serial number of the ballot papers could be used to identify them, Mohd Hashim said there was no need to worry because everybody’s vote would remain a secret.

He explained that the serial number was printed to facilitate the EC staff to check and count the number of ballot papers, rather than to identify voters.

“On the ballot papers, there are no serial numbers and for the public’s information, after the ballot counting and the results are announced, the ballot papers are kept in a safe place for 21 days in case there are parties petitioning for a recount,” he said.

After that, he said, the ballot papers would be disposed of by burning and witnessed by various parties.

On some quarters campaigning the people to deliberately spoil their votes, Mohd Hashim said the people should realise that their vote was valuable and their right as a voter could only be exercised once in five years.

Meanwhile, he said, employers who refused to allow their workers to go to the polls could be fined RM5,000 or sent to jail for a year, as provided under Section 25 of the Elections Act 1958.

In fact, employers cannot penalise an employee by deducting his/her salary or wage, or impose any action on him/ her for not turning up for duty during the period, he added. — Bernama