Introduce E Voting In Mmc For Greater Credibility Urges Senator

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 Senator Dr RA Lingeshwaran says postal voting for the 17 elected seats had been marred by the disappearance of ballot papers.
Senator Dr RA Lingeshwaran said there have been many complaints over the years of ballot papers reaching the doctors after results are announced. (Facebook pic)PETALING JAYA: Ballot papers for the Malaysian Medical Council elections are not reaching many of the 74,000 doctors in the country, which raises questions on the credibility of the annual election process, says Senator Dr RA Lingeshwaran
Speaking to FMT, the former director of Sungai Bakap Hospital in Penang said there have been many complaints over the years of ballot papers reaching the doctors after results are announced.
Lingeshwaran said he, too, had not received ballot papers a few times; on average, only 20% of the ballot papers are returned to MMC, he said.
The senator acccused MMC of not improving the election process despite complaints, and urged the new director-general of health, Dr Mahathar Abdul Wahab, to introduce an online election process in view of the large number of doctors involved in the polls.
“The frequent transfers of doctors in the government sector also contributes to their not receiving the ballot papers,” he said. “Postal voting for such an important government organisation makes the system obsolete and questionable in today’s digital world.
He urged MMC under the new leadership of Mahathar to introduce e-voting as soon as possible. “MMC has the database and the means to put it into practice,” he said.
MMC is the national medical regulator and is empowered to register and licence medical practitioners and regulate their standards. It is headed by the health director-general and nine appointed doctors from the universities and 17 elected members, 15 of which are from Peninsular Malaysia and one each from Sabah and Sarawak.
The council started sending out ballot papers to doctors from May 23. They have until July 25 to return the marked ballots. - FMT

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