The 15th General Election (GE15) is just around the corner, and everyone is waiting for the day to happen. To make sure everything goes well during that crucial day, the government is making sure no issues are cropping up on the internet and everyone will be able to use 4G services and make calls with no interruptions.
Malay Mail reported that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), chief operating officer, Datuk Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus said they will be working with telcos to make sure coverage and services will be in a good condition during the election day.
In order to provide satisfactory coverage for the GE15, he said that the commission will draw upon its action plan from the recent state elections in Johor, Melaka, and Sarawak.
Once we have the details from the Election Commission regarding the locations of polling stations and vote counting places, we will do the coverage checking; and if it is weak, we will work with the industry to improve the coverage.
All our state teams will be working together to check the coverage and that is the first priority in terms of providing adequate and good coverage for the polling and counting stations.
MCMC, COO, Datuk Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus.
In another GE15-related report by the same publication, in order to address the difficulties of cybersecurity during the election, the Communications and Multimedia Ministry (K-KOMM) has undertaken meetings with its national cybersecurity specialist agency, CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM).
K-KOMM deputy minister, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin stated it is important to take into account events like cybersecurity during GE14 in 2018, when some election candidates’ phones became “hung” due to incoming calls.
We are trying to discuss with CSM so that we can report to them immediately if any (situation arises). It will allow the CSM to identify the hackers involved as soon as possible.
K-KOMM, deputy minister, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin.
He also added that netizens shouldn’t believe everything they read online.
If possible, we ask voters to exercise caution and be vigilant. Do not believe (everything) because we do not want it to be like GE14. There were some issues they heard and thought were right, but after the election, it seems they were not true.
K-KOMM, deputy minister, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin.
According to Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998, spreading false news is illegal in Malaysia and punishable by a fine of up to RM50,000 or up to a year in prison, or both.
