Findings that Malaysia is the worst in the world in electoral boundaries raises doubts over whether the Election Commission (EC) had implemented recommendations by the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform which convened in 2012, said PKR.

The Electoral Integrity Project’s 2014 report placed Malaysia as the worst in electoral boundaries among 127 countries surveyed, and in the bottom 25 overall.

However, the EC chief refused to comment on this saying that EIP did not contact it as a respondent for the survey.

“The electoral system should have improved if the EC had truly implemented all recommendations in the PSC report.

“As such, we would like to ask whether the government and the EC’s efforts to improve the polls system through the PSC’s report has failed completely or if they were even implemented?” PKR’s Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tsin said in a statement.

He said the EC chief cannot just brush off the report and must explain to the Dewan Rakyat and MPs who had passed the report.

 

“We believe if the situation would not be as bad as it is today if the PSC’s recommendations were implemented properly,” he said.

Failed states

The Dewan Rakyat on Apr 3, 2012 passed the bi-partisan PSC on Electoral Reform’s report which had 22 recommendations, including:

  • A study to see if Dewan Rakyat seats can be equally divided among Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak; and

 

  • A fair formula based on a fixed principle in determining the number of voters in a constituency to avoid large disparities between constituencies.
    • Malaysia was ranked 114 out of 127 overall, while the EC was ranked at 117 among electoral authorities in 127 countries.

    “This means our electoral system is the same status as failed states like Pakistan, Egypt, Angola and Zimbabwe,” Sim, who is also PKR director of strategic said.

    The EIP ranked Malaysia alongside states like Egypt, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Angola.