YOURSAY | This is yet another baffling decision of our ‘independent’ EC.

Nazir Razak to EC: I hope you have good reason for rejecting Suhakam

David Dass: This is difficult to understand decision. Why is that a reason to deny Suhakam the opportunity to observe and report on the conduct of the 14th general elections (GE14)?

That is part of Suhakam's brief. Suhakam is set up by an Act of the Malaysian Parliament. It is not a hostile foreign body sent here to undermine this nation.

By its action, the Election Commission (EC) gives the impression that it is participating in some kind of subterfuge to stage the appearance of fair and free elections but not necessarily the substance of it.

This is another baffling decision of our ‘independent’ EC.

Anon: Well said, prominent banker Nasir Razak. With the series of ridiculous decisions, all EC commissioners should quit en bloc, unless they are also part of these decision-making:

1. Polls to take place on a Wednesday.

2. Poster image restrictions announced three days before nominations.

3. Campaign speakers' requirements and approval of 10 days before a ceramah if held outside their constituency.

4. Disallowing Suhakam to observe the elections.

EC’s reputation is at its lowest. Here are the people who have caused its infamy - Mohamad Hisham (chairperson), Othman Mahmood (deputy chairperson), MD Yusof Mansor. Abdul Aziz Khalidin, Sulaiman Narawi, Bala Singam Karupiah and Leo Chong Cheng.

Middle Path: EC is part of the overall scheme to allegedly steal and cheat the voters.

Dubious names on electorate rolls remaining unsolved, changing of polling stations, shifting constituent boundaries to favour a certain racial grouping, coming out with petty last-minute rules to stifle opposition parties, ‘stealing’ votes of uniformed personnel in favour of a party, setting up stupid condition for voters to register and/or vote.

And yes - pick a working day to deter outstation voters from voting. These are some of the many, many moves by our EC. Judge for yourself.

Anonymous #19098644: There can be no good reason to reject Suhakam whose members are chosen by the existing government and appointed by Agong.

The EC knows it has committed a lot of unprofessional, unethical and questionable actions and if Suhakam remains true to its principles, they will face a damning report.

Thus, they decide to pre-empt the inevitable by rejecting Suhakam. It is a total farce.

Vgeorgemy: These civil servants sitting in high echelons were brought up by Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PTD) without any sense of fair play.

We have seen that their reasonableness in the development of the nation is clouded by Biro Tatanegara (BTN) propaganda propagated by extreme right-wing elements in the administration.

Thus, they are unable to perform their functions based on the constitutional values of rule of law, so they choose to favour rule by law.

TC Chan: The EC's brief is to ensure a victory for BN. Hence, the delineation exercise, new rules on images and accrediting observers from countries less democratic than Malaysia.

Suhakam might have been seen as not too pliant.

Odysseus: Nazir, please don't just post your views on Twitter. Pick up the phone and call your brother. Better still, call your sister-in-law.

Analyst: BN has bounced back from GST and 1MDB, likely to win GE14

Kim Quek: I have been wondering for some time why Merdeka Centre has not published any poll results on the approval ratings of the BN government in general, and caretaker PM Najib Razak in particular, over the past three years (since January 2015), when Najib and his government went through crisis after crisis arising from unprecedented economic hardships and world-shattering corruption scandals.

Merdeka Centre programme director Ibrahim Suffian has just shown that his team has in fact being tapping the public's pulse all the time, even mentioning BN’s approval rating had plunged to 17% at one time.

Then, why hasn’t he published any one of them? And why reveal the ratings only now when his polls show an encouraging recovery for BN?

Unless Ibrahim gives satisfactory answers to the above questions, I will hold on to my opinion that his integrity as an independent pollster has already been compromised, and Merdeka Centre should no longer be considered an independent pollster.

At any rate, Merdeka Centre’s approval ratings for BN have always hit above the true ratings, as indicated in the popular votes returned in GE12 and GE13.

This is due perhaps not so much to the bias of the pollster, but to the general apprehension and reluctance of voters to reveal their personal disapproval of the incumbent power.

Anonymous: If BN has bounced back, why are they using the Registrar of Societies (ROS), EC others to do the dark forces' bidding?

Anonymous_abef2357: This is totally ludicrous. There is no explanation given for the Merdeka Centre survey conclusion - does it mean the rakyat have simply forgotten and forgiven 1MBD just with the passage of time?

Are our people really that simple?

Phoneix: My advice to Ibrahim is, take a trip to any local supermarket, stand at the paying counter and listen to the remarks made by shoppers.

This would be a more effective measure than your survey.

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