SINGAPORE — With surveys suggesting that an estimated 10 per cent of voters cast their ballots with an “unfounded fear” that their votes are not secret, non-government organisation (NGO) Maruah yesterday proposed several changes to the voting process to “defend the legitimacy of Singapore elections by improving citizen confidence in the secrecy of the ballot”.

Among its suggestions: Remove the serial numbers on ballot papers, provide privacy screens at voting booths, abolish the micro-zoning of voting by precincts, and do away with the audible “roll call” of voters.

In a position paper released yesterday, Maruah said it derived the 10 per cent figure from empirical evidence from its own online exit poll, along with results from an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) telephone survey, both conducted after the 2011 General Election.

Some 14.8 per cent of the 1,157 respondents to Maruah’s random poll said they did not believe their votes are secret, while the IPS survey of 2,080 respondents found that 9 per cent did not “feel free” to vote the way they wanted to. The assurances from Opposition politicians during campaigning that votes are secret, and comments by netizens and political observers, also point to the presence of such fears, Maruah said.

The NGO said it believed the system is “robust” and that votes are secret but noted that some current electoral practices here “are at best obsolete”. Amir Hussain