Communication
and Multmedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the ministry would
discuss with the EC soon to allow RTM to broadcast the counting of votes in the
Kuala Besut by-election, to enable the public to see that the election was
carried out in a fair and transparent manner.
However, the
EC is flexing its legal muscles to decide that live broadcasting of vote
counting by RTM in the Kuala Besut state seat by-election on July 24 is not
necessary.
This was
because during the vote counting, the election agents of the contesting parties
would be present in the vote counting room, said its chairman Tan Sri Abdul
Aziz Mohd Yusof said.
"The EC
is an independent body and if RTM wants to record the vote counting process and
the EC allows this, it cannot reject the applications from others, if there
are.
"The EC
has decided that any recording of the vote counting process should be managed
by the EC itself and not by other parties.
"For
the Kuala Besut by-election, the EC has also discussed and decided that there
is no need for TV recording of the vote counting. We will discuss (for future
by-elections)," he added at a press conference today.
Communications
and Multimedia Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek says he is “saddened but respects”
the EC not to allow the state broadcaster RTM to air the Kuala Besut
by-election’s ballot counting process.
“We have
discussed and I have stated my stance that the people needs to see the process
‘live’ because many do not understand (the process), but the EC has its own
considerations.
“Since the
EC is an independent body, I can’t order them, however, other state media
organizations would continue to do the coverage for other aspects of the
by-election, including the latest official result of the votes,” said Ahmad
Shabery.
The question
remains: Is the reform of the nation’s EC needs time?
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