Academicians say EC must restore credibility before asking for more power

comments     Arfaeza A Aziz     Published     Updated

The Election Commission (EC) must first convince the public of its credibility and impartiality before seeking more authority and power, said academicians.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) political science lecturer Dr Lim Hong Hai said EC must seriously and sincerely address the "nagging doubts" that the general public has on its credibility before making the demands.

"They (EC) should tackle the problem (of credibility) first. It is very hard for us as a nation to make further progress in the electoral process until that issue is resolved. Even if the intention to give more powers to it is good and necessary, the public is still scared to allow it.

"The fears of the public and some political parties from giving them more power has to do with its lack of impartiality and credibility. These fears are not unfounded. They are scared that the powers will be used in favour of the ruling party," Lim told malaysiakini .

On Tuesday, EC proposed that the election laws be amended to include more powers for the body to disqualify a political party from contesting, barring anyone from contesting or voting if he or she breaches campaign regulations by making harsh or seditious statements.

It also proposed an Election Monitoring Unit comprising its officials, candidates, political party representatives and the police as a trouble-shooting and peacekeeping team during elections.

Taking advantage

EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman had blamed certain parties for taking advantage of the police's restraint during the campaign period where vulgarities were hurled at him and other officials.

Lim also said that some of the powers sought by the EC are drastic and very alarming.

"If the powers are given, the EC will have the right to disqualify a candidate from contesting. That is such a drastic measure. What if an official makes a harsh decision to cancel a candidate's nomination. Even if there is an avenue for appeal, the damage has been already been done — the guy was already disqualified," he said.

He said the proposal to allow EC to stop a person from voting is also very serious as the right to vote is a fundamental and constitutional liberty.

"Everyone can make errors . What if they make wrong decisions especially in the heat of the moment? So there must be a very careful and thorough consideration even if some kind of control is needed," he said.

Another political science lecturer, Prof P Ramasamy of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) said the EC should focus more on being more autonomous rather than seeking new laws as it is seen to be under the total control of the executive.

Suspicious proposals

"They have all the laws necessary to control the electoral process. The amendments they sought are mostly advantageous to the ruling party. How can they define harsh words. Harsh to whom? The proposed amendments are arbitrary and only give more powers to the ruling party. It seemed to be targetted to the opposition rather than the Barisan Nasional," he said in a phone interview.

He also said that the amendments proposed are suspicious as it came after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's statement that stern action will be taken against people who create mischief during election campaigns.

"He (Mahathir) was referring to PAS during the recent by-elections. So it looked like the EC is fulfilling this order," he said.

He added there are other things that require attention from EC like streamlining and updating the voter lists which have been disputed by several parties.



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