GE14 | The Election Commission will invite their counterparts from several countries to observe the upcoming general election.

However, these “observers” will only be from the election management bodies (EMB) of those countries.

This was according to a parliamentary written reply by de facto Law Minister Azalina Othman Said to Pagoh MP Muhyiddin Yassin.

“The EC will invite international observers from Commonwealth countries, Europe, Asia and Asean – comprising representatives of election monitoring bodies in those countries – to observe the 14th general election.

“The EC will also offer independent NGOs and any qualified organisation to be local observers.

“The EC will consider a request by relevant parties, (but) it is contingent on the policies and decisions of the EC,” she said.

Azalina stressed that election laws do not require election observers to be present, but Malaysia had invited EMB representatives from other countries to observe the last general election for the sake of accountability.

“(At the time), EC had invited international observers from four Asean countries... Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia, as well as the Asean secretariat.

“The EC also invited local 17 NGOs to help the EC monitor the electoral process throughout the country,” he said.

Thus far, the EC has not been forthcoming on details of the terms and conditions for these election observers, despite multiple requests made by Malaysiakini.

Previously, veteran international election observer Damaso Magbual from the Philippines had said that EC’s arrangement for election observation during the last general election was not credible because it was a reciprocal arrangement.

This was because such a reciprocal arrangement with regional EMBs was aimed at lending each other legitimacy, rather than properly scrutinising the election.

Several Malaysians who have been invited to join international election observation missions before have told Malaysiakini that their host countries genuinely wanted proper international scrutiny.

To facilitate this, international election observers were granted media access, the right to publish their observation reports, and nearly full access to many aspects of the electoral process.

However, several former domestic election observers told Malaysiakini that there were too many restrictions applied by the EC, which amounted to a conflict of interest.

Regionally, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines routinely invite election observers from international professional monitoring bodies.