Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Barisan Nasional would have welcomed the use of indelible ink in the general election to check multiple voting.

"The BN would have certainly welcomed such a move, but if it cannot be done, we cannot just forget elections…we go ahead," the prime minister said.

Dismissing the opposition's allegation that the decision not to use the ink was a BN ploy to cheat, Abdullah said it must be noted that the BN have won many elections before.

"This (election) is not the first time. It is not even the second or third time, but the 12th time and all the elections were conducted very well. We have been successful not because we cheated. We did well because we worked very hard," he said at a meet-the-people session at the SM Kian Kok here.

Abdullah said the opposition would now be happy with the decision not to use the ink because they have an excuse why they cannot succeed in the election.
"They will tell the whole world they were cheated because it is the best excuse for them," he said.

Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman had on Tuesday said that indelible ink will not be used on polling day as the security of this method of preventing multiple voting has been breached.

Abdullah said previous elections were conducted very well because the EC was helmed by a chairman with vast experience.

"But the people have a lot of excuses. They accused that they are being cheated," he said.

source: The New Straits Times