Seremban: Voter turnout in the 16th Negeri Sembilan State Election reached 28.11 per cent as of 11 am, as announced by Election Commission (EC) chairman Datuk Seri Ramlan Harun. Observations from several polling centres in Seremban indicated strong participation in the morning, with senior citizens constituting a significant portion of the voters compared to younger individuals.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Ramlan expressed hope for increased participation from younger voters, suggesting they cast their votes earlier in the day due to potential unfavorable weather conditions anticipated later. Weather forecasts predict favorable conditions in Port Dickson until the evening, with other districts likely experiencing rain.
The EC chairman also projected a voter turnout of 72 to 75 per cent, attributing this estimate to the competitive nature of the 14-day campaign period that commenced on July 18. Additionally, Ramlan reported that the EC had received 293 complaints concerning election offences during the campaign, with most related to non-compliant campaign posters. Actions have been taken on all cases by the monitoring team and local authorities.
In a move towards integrating technology in the electoral process, the EC piloted the Optical Character Recognition Voter Attendance System (OCR-VA) at Sekolah Menengah Agama Dato' Klana Petra Maamor. This initiative aims to test the efficiency of using identity cards for recording voter attendance, as opposed to the traditional manual method.
Ramlan clarified that the pilot project was limited to recording attendance and did not impact other electoral processes. The school was chosen due to its size, making it an ideal venue for assessing the system's performance across different voter demographics.
While the pilot project is a preliminary step, Ramlan noted its potential for future digital registration, aligning with practices adopted by many countries. The EC plans to evaluate the project's outcome and gather feedback from stakeholders before deciding on broader implementation.
Out of 859,760 registered voters, including 7,391 postal voters, individuals are eligible to elect representatives for the 36 state seats contested by 103 candidates. The early voting phase, conducted on July 28, saw a turnout of 91.06 per cent, surpassing the EC's target of 90 per cent.