An interim report to make the Election Commission (EC) independent will be submitted to the prime minister by end of December, said Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

He said the proposal for the next general election date to be announced earlier is among the 15 items listed the interim report.

“It is already there… I’m working hard on it. So I hope I can submit to the prime minister next month, which if he agrees we will put out the actual report," Abdul Rashid (photo, above) was quoted as saying by national news agency Bernama.

“(It is) to be fair to all political parties and to be fair to all management bodies so that we will not be wasting money,” he told reporters after a talk in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“If (the reforms) are implemented, we will have a commission that is untouchable,” Abdul Rashid was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today (FMT).

Other items listed in the proposed reforms concern the registration of political parties, election funding mechanisms and the revamp of the EC.

Elaborating further, Abdul Rashid said an early announcement of the date of general elections is needed to save money and time.

“We (EC) train 30,000 to 40,000 people for elections. If they are delayed, we need to train again,” he said.

Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Rashid Hasnon, who was present at the talks, agreed with the suggestion as it will allow more time for policital parties and the EC to prepare for the poll.

The talk was organised by the Academy for Leadership and Management, together with the cooperation of ERC and electoral watchdog Bersih.

Asked about the banning of posters of candidates during general elections, Abdul Rashid said he would propose such a ban.

“If the government agrees to our recommendations, then we can do away with such posters,” he said during the question-and-answer session of the talk.

Concurring, EC deputy chairperson Azmi Shahrom (above) said these posters were popular in the 1950s and 1960s as people did not have access to the internet then.

He said the voters then did not know who their candidates were.

To another question, Azmi disagreed with online voting and personally opined that "if the present ballot voting system is not broken, don’t fix it”.

He said India adopted online voting because of its large population.

“Malaysia has a small population compared to India, where millions of people vote,” he said.

Abdul Rashid added that ERC would not recommend online voting.