As far as I can remember, at every Malaysian general election, the incumbent ruling party has the unfair advantage of control over television, radio and press coverage. Only recently do we have the Internet media and SMS which are relatively free from official control.

The dishing out of development funds, donations of television sets and other items to schools, and other incentives just before election have become such regular features that they are predictable. The Election Commission has never been effective in taking a strong independent stand on these unfair practices.

The voting process by the armed forces and police is still not transparent as other political parties are not allowed to have their agents to witness.

The larger deposits required to be deposited by candidates also serve as an unfair advantage to the ruling coalition with their incredibly large election funds. Then there is the danger of disqualification based on small technicalities like incorrect filling of nomination papers which Dr Kua Kia Soong found to his horror.

In a true democracy, minor mistakes should not be a cause for disqualification as the objective is to elect the right candidate as member of parliament or state assembly representative, not to choose a form filler. In fact, this strict form filling culture has been the cause of minor corrupt practices in government offices.

The use of government facilities by incumbent ministers, assemblypersons and so on has never been controlled by the Election Commission. Very soon, during the campaign period, we shall see ministers and their entourage on their "official visits" to hotly contested constituencies. The menteri besar of one state is likely to visit another state simply because the prime minister or deputy prime minister is going there.

Yet, MCA Wanita chief Dr Ng Yen Yen, in spite of her qualifications, cannot understand why the opposition leaders are complaining about the short campaigning period.

As I have sympathy for the three Keadilan leaders being disqualified to stand for the election, I would suggest that, instead of having the three filing nomination papers and likely to be disqualified, they should have only one to test it legally while the other two should have their own choice representatives to stand instead. Then at least they can count on sympathy votes for being unfairly treated. This is one way to counter the Election Commission's moving of the goal posts.