KUALA LUMPUR, 11 March 2009: Umno is renting 40 scanners from Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Berhad (Angkasa) to handle computerised voting at the party’s polls at the end of this month.
Umno executive secretary Brig Gen (Rtd) Datuk Husainay Hashim told Bernama today Umno’s management committee approved the move to save time and ensure transparency.
He said the computerised voting, being enlisted for the first time in Umno’s polls, would be handled by the party’s election committee headed by Tan Sri Samsuddin Osman with the cooperation of Umno’s headquarters.
Husainay said two audit teams – technical and statistical – would monitor the election process.
“The technical team is there to ensure there are no glitches with the scanners. The statistical team’s job, besides the vote counting, is to refer to the election committee scans of ballots that appear doubtful, for a decision,” he said.
He added that the audit teams would have to vouch for the total votes won by each candidate before any announcement is made to the delegates.
He also announced that the management committee, which is headed by Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Najib Razak, had approved the use of the candidates’ pictures in the ballot papers to enable delegates to better identify who they were voting for.
At the upcoming party polls, over 2,500 delegates will chose from 269 candidates who they want as leaders in the next term for the party, and for Wanita Umno, Umno Youth and Puteri Umno.
