Instead of talking about electoral reform, everyone should focus on pre-election rigging which has been going on since independence.

For starters, the ruling party does very well every ten years after the delineation of electoral boundaries. This is an opportunity for the powers to be to disperse the opposition votes while carving out even more seats in their favour. That's how they were able to almost claw their way back to power in Kelantan. It's a numbers game.

Next, comes the so-called Barisan Nasional concept which is nothing more than circumscribing the electoral process by endorsing elite power-sharing and denying the grassroots majority meaningful participation in the democratic process. The formation of such coalitions should be banned by law.

Thirdly, the ‘first past the post’ system denies the minority the right to be heard and makes a mockery of democracy. Democracy, in its very essence, means the right of the minority to be heard. Here, we have a system where the BN gets 64 percent of the votes but picks up 85 percent of the seats. This should be stopped.

The BN will continue with its gerrymandering of the electoral boundaries until the day comes when no matter how it carves up the seats, it will still lose. That will be the end of the BN. That happened in India where the Congress lost power after 50 years. Today, the Congress is back in power after a spell in the political wilderness but only by forging a coalition with other parties. They have a razor thin majority in Parliament and are not in power in many of the states. Never again will the Congress be able to rule India alone as it did in the past.

The Election Commission also has a dubious reputation and more often than not conveys the impression that it functions as a branch of the BN. How clean are the electoral rolls? Are illegal immigrants with bogus Malaysian MyKads on the rolls, especially in the marginal seats? The addition of a couple of hundred of such votes can make all the difference in these seats. The way the EC chairman carries himself in public makes one want to puke. The smirk on his face! Shaking his head cynically and childishly. So personal and offensive. Obnoxious and overbearing. Confrontationist and defensive. The wonder is that he has been retained.

The BN also commandeers all forms of public transportation to ferry its supporters to the polling stations. The opposition supporters have to come on their own. This is a big area of weakness for the opposition. The opposition must also likewise ferry their supporters to the polling stations throughout the day. They can use private vehicles. They should also get their supporters to register as voters and turn out as well.

Finally, the use of the government media and government servants for campaigning, beginning the campaign a month before the actual campaign under such guises as pemimpin bersama rakyat and other scams and handing out election goodies with public money is nothing more than electoral fraud.

This election will be interesting in more ways than one. How will the young vote? What will be the voter turnout? A high voter turnout will be bad for the ruling party. Which way will the Indian, Orang Asli, Dayak and KadazanDusunMurut votes go? These communities now just play a token role in government. They are there for window dressing.

If they vote for the BN, they will continue to be taken for granted by the BN. They are only worth a paint job for a Tamil school, a promise not to demolish temples, a promise to ensure that the cops will not beat up Tamil youths so often, a new roof over the Sikh temple etc when elections are here. If they vote for the opposition, the BN will have to do something for these communities to win them back or risk losing power at some future date.