The Harrowing Experience of being an EC/SPR Officer for GE13

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On May 9, 2013

The internet has done a lot of good, but plenty of harm too. I understand your paranoia, but we’re trying to be nice here, at least try and see that?? I detest how anger is so blinding that we take it out on others.

Joanne Lim

Contrary to public perception, most of the EC officers in schools are civilians/teachers who applied for the job to be EC officers on election day. I applied for the job as I wanted to be a part of the election process and gain a first-hand experience of one of the most exciting events in my beloved country. And of course, what better way to ensure a clean and fair election than to be a part of it?

To my utter shock, many voters regarded me as a government machinery who was placed there to prevent them from voting/to destroy/track their votes. When checking for a man’s saluran using his IC, I was about to hand him the paper which merely stated the room he should vote in when he quickly said, “NO NO! Don’t give me anything! You’ll track me!” It was flabbergasting!

Voters thought we EC officers had the power to summon everything. Our centre asked MBPJ (in charge of us) for wheelchairs but were told that they had ran out of wheelchairs. People scolded us for having no wheelchairs, but really, that was completely, absolutely not our fault. We asked for wheelchairs numerous times, but we never got it. To be fair to MBPJ, their staff looked harassed and exhausted each time we saw them (they ate, slept and worked in their centre round the clock few weeks prior to elections). I could imagine the number of phone calls they received that day as polling centres with problems called them for assistance. In the end we carried chairs from classrooms so that the senior citizens could sit in line and I drove senior citizens who walked in the school to the doorstep of their saluran. And I’m sorry about the sun, we can’t help it if you have to queue in the sun, really we can’t. We ourselves suffered in the heat, at least you could go home after voting.

One voter rudely asked me why she had to vote in a different saluran from her mother. She lamented about the inconvenience of it all and demanded that I change it. What she (and many others) failed to understand was that we were merely following a pre-decided electoral roll which had already placed everyone into various salurans according to your IC number. Saluran 1 started with the oldest voters on the list, Saluran 6 had the youngest voters.

Yes, changing your saluran is possible, we did it for a number of disabled/injured voters who couldn’t climb up staircases. But the paperwork involved in that is not easy, with clerks in both salurans involved having to co-ordinate and fill in forms. So what, you’ll think. That’s what you are paid for! Well, there are only 5-6 EC officers in each room, each time an EC officer is held up by such paperwork the entire voting process is delayed.We (and you) want to prevent fraud and cheating, hence paperwork is extremely necessary. You think it’s just a matter of you casting your vote in another classroom? The number of ballot papers provided for each saluran has already been fixed, any discrepancies and we’ll be in trouble.