Election Commission (EC) chief Hashim Abdullah has dismissed the need to work with the electoral watchdog Bersih for now.

He said this because EC officers have been sent abroad to learn about the election process in other countries, and therefore possessed adequate experience to handle the elections in Malaysia.

"We sent our election panel overseas, they went there to observe and learn. We will implement part of the good (practices observed abroad)," he said.

Hashim also said the EC has not engaged with any other NGO as well.

“When the time comes and (when it is) necessary, then we will engage," he told a press conference in Selayang, Selangor, today.

In an interview with Oriental Daily earlier this week, Hashim said EC would not cooperate with Bersih because it is an outlawed organisation.

However, Bersih later reminded the EC chief that it is a legal entity, and stressed on the need for the commission to work with the electoral reform movement to curb electoral malpractices.

The EC is currently aiming to get 3.8 million 21-year-old and above Malaysians to register as voters.

14 million-plus are registered as voters

Only more than 14 million out of 18 million eligible Malaysians have so far been registered as voters.

At the press conference, Hashim elaborated how his team was able to get 113 new voters from an Orang Asli community and more than 1,000 new voters from colleges and universities.

The EC has targeted to register 134,176 students and youths.

To a question, Hashim said this method was more effective than the previous one, which was the appointing of assistant registrar officers (AROs) as recommended by politcal parties, which EC stopped in 2013.

"EC's system is adequate and neat. It is effective," he said.

"Our law does not stipulate that we have to (appoint AROs from political parties)."

The opposition parties and Bersih have called on the EC to continue to grant them ARO status so that they can help register new voters.

Hashim also said that the EC may be forced to use the old electoral boundaries in the coming general election.

This is in light pf the ongoing judicial reviews filed against the proposed redelineation exercise in Selangor and Malacca, as well as similar court cases filed in Penang, Perak and Johor.

'We have to wait for court to decide'

"We have to wait for the court to decide on these cases. If the court rules in our favour, there still is a tendency to appeal (by the parties)," he said.

"Even if all the cases are cleared in court, we need to table the (redelineation proposal) report in Parliament (for approval) and later have it gazetted," Hashim said.

"Without gazetting the report, we have to use the old boundaries," he said, adding that the EC may have to continue the redelineation exercise after the general election, if it is instructed to do so.

"The problem is (as the critics claimed), political parties use the redelineation exercise to win, that's the perception," he said.

According to him, the EC had conducted the local hearings brought by voters in all the states, except in Selangor and Malacca.

Under such circumstances, he said, the latest problem caused by voters who filed the judicial review earlier this week, was just small problem.

"They are not happy, but we don't know what they want," he said.

The EC revealed its first proposed redelineation exercise on Sept 15, 2016, and came up with a second proposal in March 2017.

The Selangor government and seven voters in Malacca have filed applications in court to quash the proposed redelineation exercise.

The High Court in these two states granted a stay of the redelineation exercise pending the disposal of the cases.

Earlier this week, fresh cases against the redelineation exercise were filed in Perak, Penang and Johor.

On the lawsuit filed on the Pujut by-election, which the court pledged give its decision on the eve of the June 20 nomination date, Hashim said if the court ruled in favour of DAP, then the EC would have to call off the by-election.

"We will follow, don't worry," he said, urging the political parties to choose candidates who are free of any issues with Malaysian law.