Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/7/nation/19935284&sec=nation
Monday January 7, 2008
Teach public how to cast vote, Rafidah tells Wanita BN
JOHOR BARU: All Wanita wings of Barisan Nasional component parties have been told to go to the ground to educate the public on how and where to vote.
Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said there are people who do not know how to vote and they comprise new voters and older voters who may have forgotten how to cast their ballots.
She said these were among the reasons for the high number of spoilt votes and unreturned voting slips in the last general election.
She said some of them were too shy to ask for advice and some did not even know how a voting slip looked like.
Rafidah, who was speaking to reporters at a gathering of 2,000 Wanita members from Umno and other BN component parties here yesterday, added that other reasons for spoilt votes included protest against the candidate for not being from the area.
In the 2004 elections, there were 164,906 spoilt votes and unreturned ballot slips nationwide.
Rafidah said the matter was serious and needed to be addressed, especially in areas where the majority was less than the number of spoilt votes such as the Johor state seat, Bentayan, where BN won with a 428-vote majority.
The number of spoilt votes and unreturned slips there was 676.
I have seen for myself ballots with all the parties marked, people writing their votes at the back of the slips, drawing the party symbols on the ballot paper, making cancellations on the paper or even taking it back home as they do not know where to place it, she said.
Asked whether this was a rural or urban problem, she said it was a problem everywhere.
On the new Wanita Umno faces for the coming general election, she said: We have not even looked at it yet.
At the moment I want to ensure the machinery on the ground does its work. That is most important. The candidate list can be done in one day,
