Melaka polls: OCR-VA system won’t affect voting secrecy or time taken to vote, says EC

JASIN, Nov 13 — The implementation of the Optical Character Recognition-Voters Attendance (OCR-VA) system in Melaka does not affect voting secrecy or increase the time taken to cast a ballot, according to the Election Commission (EC) deputy chairman Dr Azmi Sharom. Dr Azmi expressed his hope that the public and all stakeholders would positively accept the new system as part of ongoing efforts to modernize the country's voting process.

He noted that the system is simple, accurate, and easy to understand, posing no difficulties for election workers in operating it. Dr Azmi stated that the main purpose of the OCR-VA system is to collect and display voter attendance data in real-time on the commission's website, as opposed to the previous method, which updated the information once every hour.

He advised voters to verify their polling centers and voting streams in advance via the MySPR Semak portal, to ensure they are not directed to the wrong location. For those without internet access, Dr Azmi suggested visiting the EC's checking counters set up outside polling centers to confirm their details prior to casting their ballots. For the latest updates, readers can visit https://election.bernama.com/prn/melaka/2026/.