The Election Commission has struck an agreement with Umno to hire members of its Puteri wing to work as part-time administrative assistants to prepare for the coming general election, a PAS parliamentarian told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar claimed that he has documentary evidence in the form of correspondence exchanged between EC officials and Puteri Umno chief Azalina Othman Said.

"Although this House told me last Thursday that the commission had withdrawn its decision to recruit Puteri Umno members as its part-time staff, my checks at the state-level EC offices have confirmed otherwise," he said.

"I have no intention of questioning the credibility of the speaker, but we must ensure that the information EC has given to this House is not a lie.

"I had my doubts...because when I called three EC offices in different states this morning, I was told that they didn't know anything about any change of plans on the recruitment."

While Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamed Zahir Ismail noted that Mahfuz's application had already been rejected, he said he would look into the matter.

Names suggested

On Sept 4, Mahfuz had sent a motion to the speaker seeking an adjournment to enable the House to discuss the alleged recruitment of Puteri Umno members as temporary EC staff, saying this was a public-interest issue "questioning the credibility of the commission".

With the motion, the MP had enclosed a letter on the recruitment exercise dated May 6, 2003, from the commission's deputy secretary Patimah Mohd Yusof to all officers based in the peninsula.

However, the motion was rejected by Mohamed Zahir who informed Mahfuz that EC had clarified to Parliament that the exercise had been withdrawn.

At a press conference in the Parliament lobby later this morning, Mahfuz expressed worry that "the EC may not have been telling the truth on the recruitment plan".

"What they told the speaker contradicted the information I received this morning. The matter must be addressed seriously to safeguard Parliament and the speaker's good name," he said.

"We don't want them (the EC) lying to this House. We need a written statement from them to explain the situation."

Elaborating on the EC's letter headed ' Pembantu Tadbir Sambilan Dari Kalangan Puteri Umno ' (Part-time administrative assistants from Puteri Umno members), the MP pointed out that the third paragraph revealed an instruction that the "classified communication must be kept in the officer's file instead of in the public file".

"This suggests that the commission took secret action together with Umno and BN. This undermines the credibility of the EC as an independent body which is supposed to ensure free and fair elections," he said.

The letter further states that the reason for appointing Puteri Umno members for the part-time posts was to assist the current staff force with the coming general election and related activities. It reminded officials to ensure that all procedures were followed in the recruitment exercise.

"Enclosed with the letter was another letter written by Azalina to the EC chairperson (Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman), providing a list of names of those suitable for the job," Mahfuz added.

Abuse of machinery

PAS Kuala Terengganu MP Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi, who was also at the press conference, said the opposition parliamentarians had also obtained copies of other letters written by Azalina, Abdul Rashid and EC secretary Wan Ahmad Wan Omar.

After studying these at length, they had found enough evidence to show Umno's "conspiracy" to abuse and manipulate the EC for their benefit.

"PAS cannot be silent about such malicious conspiracy between Umno and the EC which totally goes against the principles of democracy and justice. The people must be told of such heinous acts," he said.

He said copies of the letters - handwritten ones by Abdul Rashid and Wan Ahmad to Azalina and vice versa - would be distributed to media organisations tomorrow.

Speaking on the same issue, PAS Tumpat MP Kamaruddin Jaafar said the party is also seriously considering referring the matter to the Conference of Malay Rulers to reconsider the appointments of top EC officers.

"The commission is supposed to be independent. Today's revelation has proved that the body is anything but that. So maybe it's time for the council to reconsider the appointments (of officials)," he said.