KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission (EC) has clarified that any mark on the ballot paper counts is recognised as long as it is made within a candidate's column, said EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.
"Words are not acceptable, but a dot, tick or any other mark that can be constituted as having the intention of choosing a candidate is valid," he said here on Thursday.
"In our guideline, we stated that any mark is accepted and not just an 'X', provided it is not made in all columns," he said.
Abdul Aziz made the comment in reference to the 332,297 spoiled ballots in the 13th general election last Sunday, compared to 324,120 in 2008.
Of the spoiled votes, 171,556 ballots were for parliamentary seats while 151,741 were for state seats.
He said the number of spoiled votes showed that many Malaysians were still unaware on how to mark their ballot papers, resulting in hundreds of thousands being rejected.
He also did not rule out the possibly of voters intentionally spoiling votes because they were not sure who to vote for.
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