Indelible ink a must before casting vote

"If we paint it after they have cast the vote, there is a possibility of the voters might object to having their fingers to be painted with ink and some also might runaway from polling centre after they cast the vote," said Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof today.

The voters will have their one of their fingers brushed with the indelible ink, in contrast with a prior suggestion which requires them to dip their finger onto the bottle of ink.

"That is not practical and might dirty the ballot paper," said Abdul Aziz when conducting inspection on the early-voting movement by police officers at Police Training Centre (Pulapol) this morning.

So far, only three people know of the colour of the indelible ink that will be used for polling day of the 13th General Election on Sunday.

Two of the individuals are Abdul Aziz and commission secretary Datuk Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria, while the identity of the third individual is not being disclosed.

The ink's unique colour, which is different from other available indelible inks in the market, would enable EC officials to identify if there were voters marked with other inks.

"The substances used to produce the ink are also different from the ordinary, hence it cannot be duplicated or faked," Kamaruddin said in a news report few days ago.