There has been a religious twist to the ongoing debate over the independence of the Election Commission (EC) and alleged irregularities in the electoral process.

Islamic opposition party PAS has called on EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman to swear in the national mosque that elections here are clean and fair.

PAS Youth chief Salahuddin Ayub, who made the call, also challenged Abdul Rashid to an open debate on the issue.

According to a letter sent to the EC chief, Salahuddin wanted to debate on two key points. These are:

1) The conduct of elections in Malaysia is (allegedly) not clean and transparent.

2) There have been many (alleged) frauds during the electoral process

"I wish to stress that elections in Malaysia have been 'most dirty' with Tan Sri (Abdul Rashid) being at the helm of EC," the PAS leader said in his letter.

"I am also asking Tan Sri to swear in the national mosque that you deny all my allegations," he added.

The challenge comes in the wake of the opposition's decision to boycott the Jan 28 Batu Talam by-election in Pahang.

Abdul Rashid could not be reached for comment.

Independent commission

In announcing the boycott last week, PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa said the decision was made because of the irregularities in the EC.

According to him, this included questionable voter registration and the misuse of postal votes in to favour the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).

The opposition has repeatedly called on Abdul Rashid to step down. The EC chairperson, on the other hand, described the boycott as being nothing more than 'political games'.

On Jan 8, Abdul Rashid suggested that an independent commission be formed to re-look elections laws and restructure the EC in order to achieve greater transparency and fairness.

However, Nasharuddin dismissed this as being merely an attempt to placate the opposition.

"We are used to this. It seems to be a trend for the chairperson (Abdul Rashid) to call for change a week before any election," he said.

The Batu Talam state seat fell vacant following the death of BN incumbent Tengku Paris Tengku Razlan, 65, on Dec 27.

There will be a straight fight between BN candidate Abdul Aziz Kiram and independent Ng Chee Pang, a 22-year-old trader.