QUESTION TIME | If there was hope - any hope at all - that the referee, Elections Commission (EC) will ensure fair play at the polls, that evaporated like dew in the sunlight on nomination day April 28 when strange decisions taken by EC officials clearly detrimental to the opposition.

This was compounded further by several bankrupts being fielded mainly as opposition candidates and some questionable decisions by the opposition in terms of contestants which could lose them a couple of more parliamentary seats quite needlessly, in addition to the one they already lost on nomination day.

After that unfair, twisted redelineation exercise which blatantly increased further the disparity in constituency sizes in violation of the Constitution and concentrated opposition voters into particular constituencies, thereby increasing the chances for the ruling party to win, few expect anything much from the EC.

Below are some random ruminations about the nominations.

1. Poor show by EC. They are supposed to be there to facilitate the process of nominations to ensure that democracy prevails in the country, not to put deliberate blocks in the way of candidates so that they can’t even contest. On top of that, to go against a court decision and disqualified a candidate is ridiculously shocking to say the least while unfairly restraining a candidate from putting in his nomination papers is just too much. See point 4 and 5 below.

Meantime, the EC makes one-sided new guidelines such as this one: Candidates can only use photos of only two leaders of a political party - the president and deputy president, or their equivalent - on campaign materials, other than the photo of the candidate. That puts a great strain on what Pakatan Harapan can do in its campaigns. Read this report and be sure to watch the video of Mahathir’s image being cut out of a poster in Ayer Hitam. The depths to which the EC has descended...