Malaysiakini launches election website, SMS services
Independent online news daily
malaysiakini
today launched a comprehensive
website
, undi.info, on the 11th Malaysian general election.
"We are very proud of Undi.info," says the website's chief executive officer Premesh Chandran. "It is probably the most comprehensive online source of information for voters. We hope that the site will allow voters to make an informed decision when casting their votes."
Undi.info will offer readers:
- Election maps of all states and seats.
On election night, Undi.info aims to be the fastest in delivering the election results.
"We are working with volunteers of civil society organisation Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections , who will be sending key election results to malaysiakini directly," said editor-in-chief Steven Gan.
New SMS services
Malaysiakini
also announced the launch of two new SMS services - a paid 'news headlines' and free 'news on seats'.The 'news headline' service will deliver top headlines to the public via SMS.
Users, who will be charged 30 sen for every SMS they receive, can register for the service at malaysiakini , Undi.info or send an SMS to 32300 with the message 'mkini on'.
"Our readers have long requested to be kept informed of malaysiakini breaking news. We believe with the election around the corner, it is the best time to launch the service," said Chandran.
Malaysiakini
will also be providing a free service, which alert our readers whenever there is news regarding their constitutencies.Voters can check their voting status at undi.info and then request to be kept informed on news about the seats which they will be voting. They will also get the results of these seats through SMS on polling night.
Despite having only a handful of journalists, malaysiakini will be boosting its election coverage with the help of a team of volunteers.
"We have given the volunteers, who are mostly journalist students, extensive training on how to provide independent news to our readers," said Gan. "They along with
malaysiakini
journalists will be our eyes and ears on the ground."
Be first to know
Malaysiakini
was launched 10 days before the 1999 general elections with three journalists.The intrepid website quickly made its mark by exposing the dirty tactics used by candidates as well as government-controlled mainstream media during the campaigning period.
On polling day, malaysiakini was the first to report that Terengganu had fallen to opposition party PAS and that a number of DAP 'big guns' were defeated by their opponents from the ruling parties.
"We believe, given the lessons we had learnt four years ago, we can do even better this time," said Gan.
Malaysiakini
averages 50,000 readers a day. Subscription to Malaysiakini starts at RM10 per month.For more news and views that matter, subscribe and support independent media for only RM0.36 sen a day:
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