Ethics and the Election Commission

Bersih's Wong Chin Huat says the proposed biometrics voting system is open to abuse because of the EC's sullied reputation.

PETALING JAYA: A key member of Bersih 2.0′s steering committee said he does not trust the biometric voting system proposed by Election Commission (EC) because of the latter’s poor reputation.

Wong Chin Huat said: “I don’t trust the biometric system because I don’t believe the EC has the competence and integrity to prevent rigging and other abuses.

“Does the EC have the competency to maintain the system and also to detect or eliminate hacking by an external party?” asked Chin Huat.

A political scientist, Chin Huat, drew an analogy to the public using an online system to do their banking transactions to the biometric system.

“People resort to online banking because they trust the bank. But do you trust the EC and can they guarantee the biometric system is foolproof ?

“The issue here is the level of the trust in EC to implement the biometric system and much depends on the integrity of the EC itself,” said Chin Huat.

Chin Huat also questioned why the EC was going for a system that is not proven and costly whereas indelible ink was cheaper and more effective to prevent multiple voting.