Azhar Harun has built his reputation as a successful lawyer, but to many netizens, he is known as "Art Harun" - the fierce government critic.

Now that he is the head of the Election Commission and a civil servant, those days are over.

"My talking days are over, my criticising days are over. Now it is my doing days," he told the Star in an interview published today.

Azhar conceded that his past as a policy critic had made him look impartial, but now, as the EC chief, it was his turn to face public scrutiny.

"I have been doing this all this while, how could I be perceived as impartial? But I was thinking about it, I did all those things as a private citizen. As a professional I did all those things.

"I wrote, I observed, I analysed, I criticised. But those are done in exercising my freedom of expression, as a citizen. So, now my observing days, my criticising days, my talking days are over.

"Now is my time to work, to make the situation better. So, I have to work in accordance with the constitutional and legal framework that is available and that will require me to be impartial and I intend to do that. And that was what I’ve been shouting all this time.

"So it is time for me to do what I wanted the previous people do. I don't see any conflict in that," he said.

Azhar, 56, was appointed EC chairperson last week. He will officially assume office this Friday, a day before the Port Dickson by-election nomination process begins.

Triggering fresh redelineation

Azhar told the Star that one of his immediate priorities is to "clean" the electoral roll. He had also previously told the Malaysian Insight that he was favourable to an automatic registration process.

Another area that Azhar is interested in is the redrawing of electoral boundaries, in the wake of the redelineation report which was passed by Parliament earlier this year. The boundaries can only amended once every eight years, according to the Federal Constitution.

The redrawing of boundaries had led to huge disparities in constituencies. For example, the size of the Damansara constituency in Selangor has become just slightly larger than the entire voting population in Perlis.

"So (the) question is that are we going to get stuck with that for the next eight years?... There are of course other mechanisms that may trigger a new exercise and we have to decide whether they are needed to be done," he said.

There has been some debate on whether the eight-year waiting period can be reset if a new constituency is created, although the exact mechanisms were not clear and Azhar did not specify this in the interview with the Star.

Stronger enforcement

Meanwhile, Azhar vowed to throw the book at election offenders by applying the Election Offences Act 1954.

Azhar, who has experience in election petitions, said although the EC may not have investigative and prosecution powers, it has the power to regulate the conduct of an election campaign.

"I would like to see a stronger approach towards the enforcement of the Election Offences Act.

"The allegations of those wrongdoings are quite prevalent and there must be a clear line drawn to what a caretaker government may or may not do, from the onset of election until the election day.

"Because whatever they do may become treating or corruption or bribery," he said.

I had dinner with PM once, but...

On his relationship with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Azhar told the Star that he was not acquainted with the premier.

"I have met Dr Mahathir four times in my life, twice at (his daughter) Marina Mahathir's Hari Raya open house, once at a forum (photo) which I was moderating where we ended up being thrown slippers and flares at.

"Fourth at that dinner. That was a dinner recently where it was a Bersatu dinner where the organiser put me to sit beside him.

"And I can tell you this, the fourth time I met him, each time I had to introduce myself 'I am Azhar'. He was nonchalant. He does not know me and the mere fact that I sat beside him does not mean that he knows me.

"I don’t think he does and we never talked about this that night," he said.