Defence Minister Najib Razak is still mulling on the repeated requests by political parties to have their representatives monitor postal votes in army camps, said Election Commission chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

The EC chief told malaysiakini in an exclusive interview that he had requested for access to be given to all political parties in army camps to monitor postal votes in the general election but he has yet to get a response from the minister.

"I have been agitating for some change. I have been proposing changes, some went through. The usual request from (political) parties is that they want to monitor postal votes. They were doubtful what went on in the (army) camps," he said.

Since the 1999 general election , the opposition parties had raised concern over that the lack of transparency in the postal voting process, especially those conducted in army camps and police stations.

Police and army personnels are entitled to vote in their respective camps a few days earlier so that they could perform their duties on polling day.

According to the Election Commission, there were about 151,000 police postal votes and 83,000 army postal votes in the last general elections.

Abdul Rashid said when the opposition parties first raised the issue to him, he managed to get the Defence Ministry's approval to have officials from the commission to monitor the postal voting process in army camps.

"But of course the political parties do not trust the EC... they want to go in to see for themselves. So I brought it to the government, I went to see (defence minister) Najib Razak who said that he will bring up to the higher authority but until today there is no answer yet," he added.

No power

The 60-year-old top civil servant - who has 30 years of experience in organising elections - also said he had no power in ensuring that government resources would not be abused by the caretaker government during the election campaign.

A caretaker government, which takes over the functions of the government after the dissolution of the parliament, is restricted to carrying out the day-to-day running of the government.

He said it was very difficult for the commission to act on the opposition's complaints, in particular DAP chief Lim Kit Siang's , that the Barisan Nasional as caretaker government had abused government machineries as the issue is a "grey area".

"I challenge Kit Siang to take the issue to court. We are the not the right party to be taking up the issue. He should institute a petition seeking a court interpretation of caretaker government. Get the court to clearly state its function," he said.

"(If that can be done), I'll be the happiest person. This is a very grey area. The (caretaker) government is not elected by people, yet they function as government... to me, that should not be (the way)."

He stressed that a court action is the only way for Lim to bring some clarity to the matter, adding that the DAP leader should not waste his time lambasting the commission.

"If he doesn't do that (take court action), then stop barking at me," he quipped.

"I can't do anything. I have mentioned this to the government and they asked me whether this was the EC function? I cannot do anything, my hands are tied. All I can point out is that this is a grey area.," he said.

'We don't bother'

As to the opposition's grouses on the abuse of election expenditure, Abdul Rashid explained that the commission's task was to merely to impose the limits - RM100,000 for state candidates and RM200,000 for parliamentary candidates - and ensure that they submit the election expenditure declaration on time.

He stressed that the commission is not obliged to check the expenditure declared by the candidates. Instead, that burden falls on their political opponents.

"It is up to the rival candidate to scrutinise (the expenditure declaration). As long as you submit in time, we don't bother. We just gazette it," he said.

He said there was little that the commission could do on money politics, adding that the commission cannot afford to "have eyes and ears to be everywhere (and monitor) who take or give money."

"I just put the polling booth and then the people vote. Whether they vote for money (or not), I do not know. But if you (the opposition) know, you take them to court," he said.

Abdul Rashid was involved in organising four previous general elections, and the coming polls will be his first foray as EC boss.

In the first part yesterday, Abdul Rashid spoke about the commission's independence and the revocation of the ban on public rallies.

Tomorrow: Mahathir 'misled' on phantom voters