Indelible ink issue :No action would be taken against them - Nazri

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said the Election Commission would not use indelible ink unless it could be shown that such use would not contravene Article 119 of the Federal Constitution.

“If there is a legal opinion to show that it can be used, then EC will implement it. If not, it won’t,” he told Ahmad Maslan (BN - Pontian).

Nazri also told Loh Gwo Burne (PKR - Kelana Jaya) that no action would be taken against those who had lodged police reports saying that indelible ink was being smuggled into the country during the last general election.

“This is because they have believed the rumours they heard were true,” he said.

The Election Commission had spent RM2.4mil to buy 48,000 bottles of the ink from India to be used in the general election to prevent duplicate voting.

However, at the 11th hour it cancelled its use, citing national security and legal concerns.

EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman later said that it was the Cabinet that did not approve the use of indelible ink.

However, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi denied this, saying Cabinet had merely made a "suggestion"

“We had received information that some quarters had bought the ink although they had no authority to do so and we were suspicious that it could be used to cause confusion and complications during the voting process,” he was quoted as saying.

The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih) and National Institute for Electoral Integrity (NIEI) lodged a police report against both the EC chairman and the Prime Minister over the last-minute cancellation.