Melaka Election: EC Says OCR-VA Voter Attendance System Will Not Affect Ballot Secrecy or Voting Time

JASIN, November 13, 2026 – The Election Commission (EC) says the Optical Character Recognition Voter Attendance system (OCR-VA) being used in the 16th Melaka state election will not affect the secrecy of the ballot or the time voters take to cast their votes, Bernama reported.

EC deputy chairman Dr Azmi Sharom said he hoped the public and all stakeholders would accept the system positively, describing it as part of a continuing effort to improve and modernise the country’s voting process.

He was speaking to reporters on Friday after inspecting the checking of ballot box contents for the Merlimau state seat (N27) at Politeknik Merlimau, where he also reviewed logistics and election materials ahead of polling day on Saturday (November 14).

Azmi said that, based on what the commission had observed so far, the system was simple, accurate and easy to understand, and did not make the work of election staff more difficult.

“So far, what we see is that this is a system that election workers have to get used to, but it is not very difficult. As far as we know, they have not found the system too confusing or complicated. The system is quite simple and accurate,” he said.

“So we will carry on. This is one of the efforts to further modernise our voting system, and I think it has no effect, no direct effect at all, on the secrecy of our vote,” he added.

Explaining why the commission was continuing with the system, Azmi said OCR-VA could collect and display voter attendance data in real time on the EC’s website, compared with the previous method, under which the figures were updated every hour.

He also advised voters to check their polling centre and voting stream early through MySPR Semak before heading out to vote, to avoid going to the wrong location. Voters without internet access, he said, could arrive early and check at the EC information booths set up outside polling centres.

The EC has said 675,166 ordinary voters are eligible to vote on Saturday to fill the 28 seats in the Melaka State Legislative Assembly, with 79 candidates, including three independents, in the contest following nomination on October 31, according to Bernama. A total of 240 polling centres with 1,213 voting streams are opening across the state, Bernama reported, and the EC has said it is hoping for a turnout of about 70 per cent.

The OCR-VA system is an EC administrative tool for recording voter attendance; Bernama’s report did not carry any comment on it from the parties contesting the election.

Source : Bernama

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