Ballot boxes tagged wrongly in polling stations

SERI KEMBANGAN: Voters at Balai Mesyuarat Taman Bukit Serdang in Section 5 here have been placing their ballots in the wrong boxes since doors opened after 8am Wednesday.

The ballot papers – orange for parliament and yellow for state seats – were placed in boxes with labels that did not match the ballot papers.

An agent went on to check all 10 streams (saluran) in the polling station and found two with stickers not matching ballots.

Stickers are placed at the front of the box, away from the view of voters when they insert their ballots.

One stream had the sticker placed on top of the box.

After acknowledging the mistake, agents at the two polling streams were notified by polling clerks and told to take note of the mistake and to not disqualify votes.

The polling station has about 6,800 voters casting their votes in 10 streams.

Earlier Wednesday, Azwan Ali – who is contesting the Bukit Antarabangsa satte seat against his brother Datuk Seri Mohd Azmin Ali – also spotted the same mistake at their polling station in SK Klang Gate in Setapak.

Azwan, contesting under the name “Diva AA,” pointed out that yellow ballot papers were in the box tagged “Parliament” and orange ballot papers were in the box tagged “State”.

“It should be the other way around. I am not Election Commission (EC) personnel but I know this fact, and I am shocked at how this mistake happened,” he said.

• Polling centres close at 5pm and counting begins soon after. Early results will start trickling in at about 6.30pm. To keep track of results as they come in, go to https://election.thestar.com.my/
  
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