(Photo: Reuters)

A glitch in the electronic voting system during an SMRT Corp shareholders’ meeting on Thursday (29 September) left many attendees frustrated.

According to a Straits Times report, around 4,000 SMRT Corp shareholders had turned up for the 2.30pm meeting at the Star Theatre to vote on the proposed privatisation of the company as part of the extraordinary general meeting.

As voting was due to commence at 4.15pm, activist shareholder Mano Sabnani stood up to protest that some of the electronic voting devices failed to register a “No” vote on the scoreboard while they were being tested. He demanded an explanation, adding that the system seemed to accept only “Yes” votes.

SMRT chairman Koh Yong Guan asked for the attendees’ patience as officials looked into the issue. At around 4.30pm, some shareholders started to leave while the issue remained unresolved.

Voting finally resumed after a near 30-minute delay, said a Today Online report. The results saw 98.84 per cent of SMRT’s minority shareholders approving the sale of SMRT assets to the Land Transport Authority and 84.83 per cent approving the takeover bid by Temasek Holdings.

Temasek, which holds 54 per cent of SMRT’s shares, abstained from voting.