The Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel), a non-governmental organisation formed in October 2003, will observe and monitor the forthcoming Sarawak election as a run-up to the 12th General Election in Malaysia.

"Towards that end, Mafrel has conducted a pre-election assessment mission to Sarawak from May 9 to 14," its executive chairperson Abd Malek Hussin told malaysiakini .

Sarawak is the only state holding separate elections for state and parliamentary seats, and a different timing for state election. Only the election for parliamentary seats are held simultaneously with the rest of the country. The state election in Sarawak is due by September 2006.

As its name suggests, the NGO's primary aim is to ensure free and fair elections in Malaysia. It is registered under the Malaysian Companies Commission (formerly Registrar of Companies).

Malek said prior to the 2004 general election, Mafrel planned to conduct election observation and monitoring.

But owing to time limitation following the early dissolution of Parliament and state assemblies in Peninsular Malaysia, it only managed to conduct what Malek described as small-scale election observation.

"At that time, Mafrel had just begun to conduct an electoral rolls research in January 2004," he added.

Although there was widespread public discontentment on the poor conduct of the last general election, Mafrel was not in any way involved in the subsequent protests organised by opposition parties as it had to uphold its principles of being non-partisan.

On-going research

Malek said Mafrel had taken part in election observation missions to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Thailand.

Mafrel is conducting a research on alleged irregularities of the electoral rolls used during the 2004 general election, focusing on alleged illegal inclusion of voters in Terengganu and illegal exclusion of voters in Selangor. "The research is still on-going," he added.

Last week, Malek led a group of Mafrel officials, including his deputy Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, secretary Hanif Zuhdi Mahmud Pathi and treasurer Hasnah Hashim, at a meeting with the Election Commission chairperson, Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, his deputy Wan Ahmad Wan Omar and secretary Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor, to brief them on Mafrel's aims, some of its current activities and its plans.

During the meeting, according to Malek, the EC chief expressed the hope that Mafrel's activities could help rectify weaknesses in the electoral process.

Thanking the EC officials for their readiness to work with Mafrel on issues of common concern, Malek said he hoped the meeting would be the start of a long-lasting constructive relationship between the two parties.

Abd Rashid, said Malek, welcomed the idea of an independent electoral reform body to be formed along the same line as the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Police.

Full power

Abd Rashid was quoted as saying that because of ignorance of its obvious limitations and scope of duties, the EC had always been on the receiving end 'whenever malpractices and mismanagement of election conduct occurred.'

Giving one example, he said, on the rights to assembly such as public rally during elections, the permit is under the jurisdiction of the police.

"The EC views that it is sufficient to merely notify the police on public gathering during election campaign period. But when it is banned, it has been a practice to blame EC even though that is under the purview of the police," the EC chief was quoted as saying.

Abd Rashid felt it would be better to give the EC full power in conducting elections, thereby compelling government machinery to abide by all instructions and regulations laid by it.

Inspite of some of the difficulties it is encountering, the EC is willing to undertake reforms to rectify any weaknesses, he said, adding that the EC is working on recommendations for electoral reforms with the help of expertise from the Commonwealth Secretariat.

According to the EC, 3.2 million eligible Malaysians have yet to register as voters.

"The EC is prepared to provide registration facilities and services, but it cannot do anything in the case of those who refused to register," he said, adding that Universiti Technology Malaysia (UTM) had been commissioned for a fee of RM500,000 to conduct a research on the matter.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini 's Sarawak-based stringer.