HIGH traffic and congestion led to the MySPR Semak app and portal crashing and not showing crucial voter information for polling day in recent days, the Election Commission (EC) has finally confirmed, albeit at the 11th hour.
In a brief statement at 5pm, the EC said the platform – aimed at helping voters check their voter information, such as designated polling centres and streams, before going in to vote today – has received over 2.5 million hits per second.
“The EC has maximised the use of existing servers to solve this problem,” it said.
“As an alternative, voters can get their voting information either by calling the EC hotline at 03-8892 7218 or checking directly with the EC at the voting centres.”
According to media reports and recounts by netizens, the website crashed yesterday (Nov 18) around noon for purported maintenance work ahead of polling day today, but eventually came back online.
However, it crashed earlier this morning, leading to widespread panic among voters who had yet to find out their voting information or didn’t screenshot or jot down their particulars.
Polling will end at 6pm for Peninsular Malaysia. It ended at 5:30pm for East Malaysia.
A little over 21 million Malaysians were eligible to vote today, including almost six million 18-year-olds following last year’s historic Undi18 bill.
Following years of political instability as a result of the Sheraton Move of 2020, all eyes will be on the outcome of today’s polls, which is expected to result in a hung Parliament and subsequent political horse-trading in the next couple of days to secure enough numbers to form a government.
As of 3pm, the EC has recorded a 65% turnout rate in the polls or 13.65 million in actual votes.
This is 3.15 million more votes than what the EC recorded at the same time back in 2018 but a 5% decrease in terms of voter percentage. – Nov 19, 2022
