Three civil groups have banded together to launch the citizen’s campaign, Pemantau Pilihan Raya Rakyat (Pemantau), which aims at mobilising some 10,000 citizens as observers to ensure the looming 13th general election is free of fraud.

NONE Electoral reforms pressure group Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan ( left ) said volunteers of Pemantau, devised by Bersih, Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) and Pusat Komas, will “observe the election process from the campaigning period and voting day, as well as carry out media monitoring”.

To ensure Pemantau remains nonpartisan, the 10,000 they hope to recruit must not be a member of any political party.

“Members of political parties cannot be observers. We need to maintain the nonpartisan nature of the observers," she said.

Ambiga had previously chastised the Election Commission for its seeming lack of commitment towards real reform and claimed that the coming polls will be “one of the dirtiest elections ever ”.

The monitoring will be carried out according to the international standard and declaration adopted by the United Nations.

Further information on the project will be updated through Bersih's Facebook page and official website , said Ambiga.

Mafrel chief Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh who was present during the press conference, stressed that Pemantau is not empowered to interfere with the conduct of election but will only observe, record and publish a report after the general election.

Pusat Komas executive director Arul Prakkash called on the public to feed Pemantau with information on the conduct of election.

“We have also established a website - pru13.info , and we invite ordinary citizens to monitor and send us reports through text messages, hotline or Twitter .”

The NGOs also asked for financial contribution from the public to fund this project through a campaign dubbed “RM10 for Pemantau”.

Donation can be made into CIMB Islamic bank account 1238-0000-6611-00 under the name “Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor”.