Lack of awareness cause of spoilt votes

INADEQUATE civil awareness among the public and the lack of political awareness among some youths are reasons a lot of spolit votes appear in general elections.

In stating this, political analyst Oh EI Sun said it is baffling why there are voters who want to spoil their votes.

They do not have to vote if they do not wish to, he said, adding he wonders why they would waste their time and petrol to go to polling stations to cast spoilt votes.

In an interview with China Press published yesterday, Oh also wondered if these voters have an attitude problem.

“Malaysia is different from Australia. In Malaysia, no one is compelled to vote in general elections, whereas it is mandatory for citizens to vote in Australia. Thus, it’s understandable (if there is a high percentage of spolit votes in Australia).”

Election Commission figures showed that the turnout rate of 84.84% in the 13th general election (GE13) was a record high in Malaysia.

A total of 11,257,414 voters cast their ballots, of which 332,297 were spoilt, which was also a record high number. In some constituencies, the number of spoilt votes exceeded the number of majority votes.

Last weekend, MCA syariah law and policy implementation bureau chief Gan Ping Sieu said a high percentage of spoilt votes did not mean the people were giving up on the country adding that there were other factors at play.