The Election Commission chairperson Mohd Hashim Abdullah is willfully turning a blind eye to problems in the electoral system, especially the link between the 1MDB scandal and election financing, said electoral watchdog Bersih.

Mohd Hashim in an opinion piece published in Mingguan Malaysia last weekend said Bersih realises that polls are fair but will continue to claim otherwise until the opposition takes Putrajaya.

Bersih said the 1MDB scandal may be linked to election financing, since Umno said donations made to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak have been disbursed to party divisions.

"Najib himself admitted that BN had spent RM1.5 billion of his supposed RM2.6 billion 'donation' on GE13 campaigning.

"Just today, Umno information chief, Annuar Musa, said that all political funding channelled to Najib were disbursed to Umno divisions accordingly.

"Bersih will not stop questioning the 1MDB scandal until questions are answered and conflicting reports are addressed," Bersih said in a statement.

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali in exonerating Najib last January said the donation came from a Saudi royal.

However, United States Department of Justice court documents allege that a high-ranking Malaysian official received US$730 million which originated from 1MDB.

Refer to tribunal findings

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan said the official in question was Najib, but the PM is not the subject of the DOJ suit to seize assets allegedly bought using funds siphoned from 1MDB.

Najib has denied abusing public funds for personal gain.

"Given allegations of electoral irregularities, the 1MDB scandal, and unfair redelineation exercises, how can the EC chairperson still maintain that elections are fair.

"Instead of addressing these important issues, he has chosen to bury his head in the sand, oblivious to what's happening on the ground," Bersih said.

It said the 836 objections to the proposed redelineation in the peninsula and Sabah is also indication that all is not right with the electoral system.

It added that the People's Tribunal organised by Bersih after the 13th general election found the polls were not "free and fair".

The People's Tribunal was chaired by Kenyan constitutional expert Yash Pal Ghai.

"Bersih urges Mohd Hashim to rethink his position and work towards cleaning up the electoral process to ensure free and fair elections," it said.

Bersih, however, did not respond to criticism for associating itself with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who has been charged with corruption.

Rizal Mansor, who is aide to PM's wife Rosmah Mansor, questioned Bersih on this following their call for clean government.

The Bersih 5 rally on Nov 19 calls for clean elections, clean government, empowerment of Sabah and Sarawak, strengthening parliament and the right to dissent.