Opposition members today criticised the government's move to amend the election law as yet another attempt to stifle democracy and warned that Malaysia would soon become an 'Asian Zimbabwe'.

PAS president Fadzil Noor said the government did not have a good excuse to increase the deposits of candidates planning to stand for election from the current RM5,000 to RM20,000.

Fadzil slammed the government as a "dictatorship that was out to promote a group of capitalist elites" in Parliament today.

He said Malaysia would soon become an 'Asian Zimbabwe' for its countless restrictions on the opposition, referring to the efforts by Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe to muzzle the country's dissidents

"We see that since the last general elections there had been various attempts to prevent the opposition from growing in strength," said Fadzil (PAS-Pendang).

Earlier when tabling the bill, de facto Law Minister Rais Yatim had said the amendments were necessary to counter weaknesses experienced during the last general elections and recent by-elections.

Inappropriate

Noting that the last amendment was in 1994, he said that certain parts of the act were inappropriate and needed to be streamlined to reflect the current political scenario.

Rais proposed that the electoral register cannot be challenged in the courts.

"This is vital because verification of the roll by the election registrar meant that it had already gone through the entire process set by the election regulation and need not be questioned," he added.

He also suggested that the ceiling for election deposit be increased four times — from RM5,000 to RM20,000 — to prevent "any Tom, Dick and Harry" from taking part in elections.

However, Wan Aziziah Wan Ismail (Keadilan-Permatang Pauh) said if candidates have to pay a RM20,000 deposit, only wealthy parties are able to contest in elections.

Restrict participation

Wan Azizah lamented that a party which wants to field 50 candidates would have to pay about RM1 million in deposits for the elections and this would limit the participation level of small parties.

"Although the Prime Minister's Department said that the RM20,000 deposit was only a ceiling, we think it is very high compared to other countries," she said.

Wan Azizah said a Dewan Rakyat candidate has to fork out about seven times more that a candidate in Australia and 131.7 times more than one in India.

She gave a breakdown of election deposit for several countries — Britain, US$712, Canada, US$125, Ireland, US$110, Namibia, US$86, New Zealand, US$42, India, US$10, Australia upper house, US$356, lower house, US$128 — compared with Malaysia's US$1,317.

"MPs in most of these countries earn higher remunerations and allowances compared to those in Malaysia," she said.

Check and balance

Meanwhile, Chow Kon Yeow (DAP-Tanjung) criticised the proposal that the electoral registrar could not be challenged in court.

Chow said judicial review was important as a check-and-balance so that the roll would be free from phantom voters.

"Can the Election Commission guarantee that the electoral roll is free from phantom voters? Will the commission go on a nationwide campaign to free the rolls from such phantoms?" he queried.

He also criticised the commission for not consulting the people about the amendments "to show that it is free from Barisan Nasional or the government".

In contrast, all BN MPs supported the government's proposal to amend the election laws.

Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) said the opposition has to admit "once in their lifetime" that the country is governed by a good leader.

Mastika Junaidah Husin (BN-Arau) said when the Election Commission publicises the electoral roll, and those who were unhappy can challenge it.

She said she had not heard of an instance when the commission had turned down a request raised by those who wished to dispute the register.

Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (BN-Batang Lupar) lambasted the opposition for "doing nothing but find faults with the government".

The proposal to keep the electoral roll free from being challenged in court was a right move, he said, to prevent people from abusing the privilege.

"The opposition should raise the issue when the electoral roll is publicised by the commission, not only when they (opposition) lose the election," he said.

"They are like sour grapes. If they win, they do not make an issue out of the electoral roll on whether there are hantu (phantom voters) or not," he added.