Saying that he knew 2,019 Rela members did not vote, did not mean that Zahid knew who the Rela members voted for.

Zahid just giving advice to Rela members to vote, says EC chief

MAY 25, 2014

Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof (pic) finds nothing wrong in what Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said yesterday pertaining to knowing who were the Rela members who did not vote in the last general election, Bernama reported today.

Aziz said the statement made by the Umno vice-president does not violate any election regulations.

"He was just advising Rela members, who are registered voters, to return to their hometowns to cast their votes.

"If the Rela members were not registered voters in Teluk Intan, they cannot do anything. The advice is not only for Rela members. Whoever registered as voters in Teluk Intan are also advised to return and vote.

"Whether they are with the armed forces, police, Rela, JPAM (Civil Defence Department) or any other uniformed bodies... if they are registered as voters, they should come back and vote," Bernama reported Aziz as telling the media in George Town after visiting polling centres for the Bukit Gelugor by-election.

Yesterday, Zahid in his speech in Teluk Intan, Perak, called on Rela members to cast their votes at the Teluk Intan by-election, saying that he knew 2,019 Rela members did not vote at the last general election, after he checked their names one-by-one.

According to Bernama, Abdul Aziz said the statement did not mean that Zahid knew who the Rela members voted for in the last general election because all votes remained secret.

"Nobody knows who they voted for, the EC doesn't know, nobody knows... but whether they cast their votes or not, that we know because the indelible ink would be stained on their fingers. The ink can last a month.

"However, if they are registered voters and they did not come back to vote, what can we do? We cannot force them," Bernama quoted the EC chief as saying. – May 25, 2014.