Be a bold reformist, EC told

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Election Commission (EC) chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman should ban money politics instead of criminalising posters during elections, Parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said today.

There was fear that banning posters would render the electoral process more unfair to the already disadvantaged opposition facing an uneven playing field tightly controlled by the Barisan Nasional (BN).

"He (Abdul Rashid) should stop tinkering with relative trivia and address substantive issues of major election abuses by proposing far-reaching electoral reforms to ensure free, fair and clean elections in the country," Lim said in a statement.

The BN had reportedly chalked up a whopping RM110 million for posters during the 2004 general election and another RM3.5 million for the Pengkalan Pasir by-election.

Chiding the EC for its latest proposal, Lim described previous amendments to elections laws as "short-sighted and futile tinkering", which resulted in a four-fold increase to RM100,000 for parliamentary and RM50,000 for state assembly candidates.

"At the time, I had criticised the EC for closing its eyes to the grave electoral abuses which afflicted the electoral system in the past few decades, in particular the abuses of the politics of money, media manipulation and government machinery exploitation," he said.

Penalise excesses

He said the EC should have emulated the UK which stipulates a limit to election spending.

Citing amendments to the Election Offences Act 2002, Lim said he had suggested for election expenses to be capped at RM10 million per political party or coalition excluding spending for candidates.

If found guilty, political parties or coalition chiefs would be liable to prosecution and disqualification as elected representatives.

"Is it any surprise that Abdul Rashid and the EC had dared not consider such a proposal which would have gone a long way to minimise if not eradicate the scourge of politics of money, the root cause of worsening corruption in the country?"

Describing the BN's election bill as "most shocking and outrageous", he said spending on the posters alone would have exceeded the total legitimate expenditures of all parliamentary candidates in 2004.

One too many

He said postering was only one of many election expenditures which include payment for election workers, kenduris (feasts), gifts, entertainment and direct cash contributions to voters.

The DAP MP for Ipoh Timur urged the EC chief to be "bold and reformist enough" to tackle the scourge of money politics head-on and trace the root cause as to why corruption has become intractable.

He said the 2004 general election expenses of the BN candidates amounted to hundreds of millions of ringgit.

"(These) were different and separate from the expenditures of the BN as a political coalition and its components which would be in the billions."

In noting Abdul Rashid's confidence in getting the official nod for the latest proposals, Lim said the absence of consultation with all political parties would render any electoral reform meaningless.



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