An academic research body, following a two-year study, today called for major reforms in the country's electoral system before it loses its legitimacy.

"We must acknowledge that the Malaysian electoral system and the process of legitimation coming from it is increasingly under strain," warned project coordinator Noraini Othman of University Kebangsaan Malaysia's Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (Ikmas).

She proposed a series of wide-ranging reforms involving the Election Commission (EC), the electoral system, and the role of the media and civil society in ensuring free and fair elections.

Topping the list of Ikmas' recommendations are the call for the EC to cut its civil service appointees, the lifting o­n the blanket ban o­n political rallies and a substantial increase in the campaigning period.

All political rallies and open-door gatherings are currently banned, while the campaigning period over the past few elections were no more than nine days.

Credibility and accountability

The research body recommended that the post of the EC chairperson and its commissioners should be filled by leading public figures from diverse backgrounds such as judiciary, academia, relevant professional bodies and former senior diplomats.

At present members of the commission are appointed by the King - upon the advice of the prime minister - after consultation with the Conference of Rulers, whose members are the sultans from various Malaysian states.

Ikmas stressed that to ensure the accountability and credibility of the electoral system in the country, the EC must be able to fulfil its role and duties of overseeing elections impartially.

The extensive survey o­n the Malaysian electoral system was sponsored by German-based foundation, Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung.

Noraini's paper entitled 'Recommendations for Reforms to the Malaysian Electoral System' was presented to some 80 people at a forum held this morning.

Noraini, who is also Ikmas deputy director, lamented that several amendments o­n election-related legislations since 1962 had reduced the EC's powers and independence, leading to the deterioration in the discretionary power of the commission.

She said those most affected by the legislative changes are small political parties and "those not in the government".

Noraini urged the EC to adopt a more independent policy and stance o­n future changes to the electoral system.

"Perhaps the procedure for many of the EC-initiated changes in the rules and regulations should be more transparent or allow for a procedure for some form of public scrutiny before they are adopted," Noraini told the audience.

Phantom voters

Ikmas also recommended for the automatic registration of new voters where voting is done according to the area indicated in the voters' identity card to avoid the transfer of voters and phantoms voters.

The EC's exclusion of 680,000, or 7.26 percent, newly registered voters from the last general election in 1999 has sparked a public outcry.

Ikmas said the media and civil society must play a leading role as "watchdogs" in the electoral system.

The EC should set up a charter for all media organisations to encourage balanced coverage and to discourage 'hate speech'.

Noraini also criticised the commission for not making an effort to reduce the discrepancy in the number of voters between constituencies in the recent 2002 redelineation exercise, some of which have violated the commission's rule - that no seat should have 25 percent more voters than others.

"If the EC were really serious in trying to reduce the discrepancy and differences between the number of voters per parliament seat across state, we would then expect the number and percentage of parliament seats not fulfilling the 25 percent quota to decrease from 1999 to 2002.

However, she decried that both the number and percentage of seats not fulfilling this 25 percent rule had increased.

She called for the 15 percent deviation rule to be restored. The EC had recently lifted the deviation rule from 15 percent to 25 percent.

Under the new redelineation plan, of the 25 new parliamentary seats proposed, the highest allocation was to Johor (six seats) while Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu did not receive any new seats.

Correspondingly, of the 59 new state seats that were proposed, the highest number went to Johor (14 seats), while Perlis, Kedah and Terengganu again had none allocated.

Under heavy fire

The plan has put EC under heavy fire as it was seen to be biased in favour of the ruling Barisan Nasional government as Johor is its major stronghold.

The forum today also featured a discussion from eight panelists who have contributed in the survey - Andrew Aeria, Salbiah Ahmad, Khoo Boo Teik, Sharaad Kuttan, Lim Hong Hai, Francis Loh, o­ng Kian Ming and Rashila Ramli.

During the question-and-answer session, questions mostly raised from the floor involved the controversial redelineation exercise which was approved by the Dewan Rakyat o­n April 8 despite a walkout by opposition members.

The bill is expected to be tabled in Dewan Negara at the next parliamentary sitting in June.

Met after the forum, project leader Dr Mavis Puthucheary said copies of the research findings and recommendations would be submitted to the EC soon.