Ruling coalition Barisan Nasional has come under fire after it was revealed it had “exploited” youth community programme and National Service trainees for their campaign purposes in the recent Batang Ai by-election.

mafrel pc chinese assembly hall 220409 In its preliminary observation report on the three by-elections, including Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau, that were held simultaneously on April 7, election watchdog Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) claimed the trainees were “mobilised to rally for BN during the nomination day”.

“They were at BN’s rally and we have photos of them in the national trainees uniform. They were part of the mobilisation as they had the BN symbols on them.

“Whenever you have that (political party) symbol, in means you are part of the campaign,” said Mafrel chairperson Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh to reporters at Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall today.

y2y national service trainees batang ai by-election 220409 Describing the move as “regrettable”, he lamented that such a national service programme “should not be used especially for the purposes of a political party”.

“They were attending a national service programme under the government,” so the young trainees should not be exploited in such a manner, he added.

He refuted claims that they were at the campaign events as part of their “co-curricular activities”.

“They were there with the BN logos (on their uniforms) at the time their candidate (campaigned). To me, it is very clear, no doubt about that.”

Police deployment can be reduced

On a separate note, Mafrel has suggested that the cost spent by the police force could be further reduced if the nomination process period is extended to one week instead of only one hour as practised today.

bukit gantang by election mafrel pc 300309 ong boon keong Mafrel’s northern region director, Ong Boon Keong, said the police had spent “10 times more than the Election Commission (EC) itself” but this could be prevented if the nomination process is extended “just like other countries”.

He said the number of police deployed could also be reduced.

“So political parties or independent candidates can come in and nominate themselves at any time during the one week and there is no need to squeeze everything into one hour that we have to do now.

“This is a very simple practice all over the world and Mafrel would rather suggest the EC adopt this system,” which will help avoid congestion and possible clashes between supporters of various candidates, said Ong.

Also on polling day, he said, Malaysia is one of the very few countries in the world where there is active campaigning on polling day.

According to The Star last week, the police force had spent RM7 million (Bukit Gantang), RM5 million (Bukit Selambau) and RM5 million (Batang Ai) which comes a to a total of RM17 million.

Meanwhile, the EC only spent RM1.4 million on the three by-elections.

“I don’t think that can be justified at all,” said Syed Ibrahim.

Flaws and recommendations

In the preliminary report on Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau, Mafrel has revealed that the EC did not update the electoral rolls close to the election date, to at least the last quarter of 2008, as have been practised before.

The electoral roll used in the three by-elections, said Mafrel, was dated as at September 2008.

bukit gantang election day 070409 13 Mafrel then urged the EC to either revamp the electoral roll or adopt the roll produced more professionally by the National Registration Board.

The election watchdog also claimed the abuse of public expenditure and facilities for campaigning purposes, coining the term “instant noodle projects”.

“Instant projects and allocations by governments made to advantage certain candidates should be stopped at this represents abuse of power by the office-holder,” suggested Mafrel in the report.

Other than that, the report said the date for the by-elections is also considered ‘inconvenient’ as it fell on a working day, resulting in lower voter turn-out in Bukit Selambau from 73.7 percent during the 12th general election last year to 70.28 percent during the by-election.

Thus, Mafrel is calling for EC to organise the next polling day on holidays to facilitate more people to vote.

When it comes to restrictions imposed on political ceramahs, Mafrel argued that the police and government should respect the citizens’ rights to peaceful assemblies as called by the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).