Middle ages election

It's bad enough Malaysia has a non-independent Election Commisions.
It's bad enough that election results are frequently tampered with.
It's bad enough that Malaysia has phantom voters all over their electoral rolls.
Babies, children and the deceased are frequently listed as eligible voters.

We had to take 2 steps back to where only the poorest, underdeveloped and war-torn nations have done - the use of indelible ink.

Now the Election Commision has to defer the decision to use indelible ink to the Islamic Fatwa Council !

Reproduce here in it's entire form from Malaysia-today

MALAYSIA'S Election Commission (EC) has referred its plan to use indelible ink for general elections to the Islamic fatwa council, citing Muslim reservations about cleanliness.

The EC wants the Muslim scholars on the council to rule on the issue of introducing the use of ink, said the commission's deputy chairman, Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.

The idea to use the ink to mark the fingers of voters is being pushed by opposition parties as a safeguard against multiple voting - a charge that often surfaces in Malaysian elections.

The EC - the government agency that organises general elections and by-elections - said last month that it was agreeable to the idea.

It said the ink could be in use by the next general election, which must be held by March 2009 but which many speculate could be held within the next six months.

Datuk Wan Ahmad said the fatwa council must first decide whether using the ink is allowed in Islam as it could affect ablutions carried out by Muslims before their daily prayers.

The ink cannot be wiped off for two to three days.

The opposition has said that the use of the ink had not posed a problem in Muslim countries such as Iraq.

The vice-president of conservative opposition party Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Datuk Husam Musa, said this month that the use of the ink has no bearing on Muslim cleanliness.

He claimed that the government was merely looking for an excuse not to implement the ink's use.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

So now, Muslims cannot be treated with Iodine, Potassium Permanganate to name a few, for wounds, because they leave a tiny stain. What next, antiseptic cream cannot be applied on open sores ?
Excuse, Stupidity or an increasingly dogmatic civil administration bound to a 14th century texts describing how life should be led Arabia.

You decide.