Election Commission has to prove its independence and impartiality in the fixing of length of election campaign, conduct of free, fair and clean elections as well as ensuring no abuse of power by caretaker government

(Petaling Jaya, Thursday): The new Election Commission Chairman, Datuk Omar Mohd Hashim said yesterday that no foreigner will be invited to observe the coming general election which must be held latest by August 7 next year, claiming that elections in the country have always been carried out in a fair and transparent manner.

If the country’s elections have always been carried out in a fair and transparent manner, then there would not have been so many complaints by the Opposition parties in every general election about the failure of the Election Commission to conduct a "free, fair and clean" election.

The Election Commission itself has no confidence that it could conduct a "free, fair clean" general election, especially with the warning by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad that the next general election will be the "dirtiest" in history.

The Opposition parties are incapable of making the next general election the "dirtiest" in history, as only the Barisan Nasional parties, with their political hegemony and monopoly and abuses of 3M - money, media and government machinery - are capable of making the next election the dirtiest in history.


It is precisely because the Election Commission has no confidence that it could conduct a "free, fair and clean" general election that it has not responded to my proposal that it convene an all-party meeting to draw up a Electoral Code for free, fair and clean election  with an effective machinery for its enforcement - as a Commission for Free, Fair and Clean Election.

How can the Election Commission claim to have conducted fair and transparent elections in the past when:
 

• The Opposition parties are not allowed to send polling agents to supervise the casting of postal ballots by members of the security forces to ensure free and fair casting of votes.
• The huge presence of "phantom" voters.
• The short  election campaign period which is invariably decided by the Prime Minister when he dissolved Parliament, when this should be the exclusive responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure a "free, fair and clean" election.
• The abuses by the "caretaker" government in allocating funds and giving election promises with regard to development projects, or abuses of power  by Ministers of the "caretaker" government in misappropriating public funds for party election campaigning, such as  travelling and other misuse of public resources.
• The total inability of the Election Commission to ensure "free, fair and clean" election  as by setting up a special unit to monitor and ensure that the election meets the highest standards of being  "free, fair and clean".
  
  

Yesterday, Omar said that if the general election is held this year, the 1998 electoral roll with 9.7 million voters   gazetted on Jan 7 this year will be used and that the 650,000 new voters who registered during the voters’ registration exercise in April/May would not be able to cast their vote.

This is most unfair and undemocratic.  Realising that the 10th general election could be held this year, the Election Commission has a responsibility to ensure that every eligible voter would be able to exercise his constitutional right to vote and should have made plans to ensure that the 650,000 new voters registered this year could be included in the electoral roll in less than three months of registration.  In other words, that the 650,000 new voters would be able to cast their vote if general election is held by September this year.

In this era of information technology, there is no reason why the annual preparation of electoral rolls to include the registration of new voters could not be completed in two or three months. The failure of the Election Commission to include the 650,000 new voters in the electoral roll for the coming general election will be a blot for the tenth general election in the nation’s history.

Because of the many defects and shortcomings detracting from the legitimacy of the claim that general elections in Malaysia are "free, fair and clean", the Election Commission should welcome foreigner observers for the coming general election rather than making its strong objections to show that it has nothing to hide.

(24/6/99)