'Untrue EC powerless'

Some details taken from article of Malaysiakini on debate

Responding to Wan Ahmad, Ambiga as the second speaker cited section 27E of the Election Offences Act to prove that the EC has actually broader powers than it conceives.

According to Ambiga, the section empowers the EC enforcement team during the campaign to "ensure that written laws relating to election are being complied with".

She argued that the EC also has the power, under the current laws, to call other authorities to assist the commission in carrying out its duties.

Therefore, although the EC has no prosecution powers, it has the responsibility to lodge police reports or request other authorities to take action, when faced with cases of irregularities.

The former Bar Council president also quizzed Wan Ahmad on the issue of postal votes for Malaysians overseas, who are being denied a chance to vote.

"From the feedback we received, it is impossible for them to go to the Malaysian embassies to vote," said Ambiga.

She reminded Wan Ahmad that 50,000 to 200,000 Sarawakians in the peninsula were disenfranchised during the state election in April because they did not qualify as postal voters.

Automatic registration 'doable'

While on the subject, Ambiga also requested Wan Ahmad to explain whether the members of the territorial army (Wataniah), that the government has suggested to form in every parliamentary constituency nationwide, will be registered as postal voters.

Wan Ahmad responded that the EC is looking into replacing the current postal voting system, which has been criticised for not transparent and vulnerable to abuse, with an advance voting systen, where all police and military personnel will cast their votes before the polling day, but the voting process will be exactly the same as ordinary voters on polling day.

He also said that all full-time students and civil servant abroad, together with their spouses, are eligible to be postal voters but the current number of overseas voters only stands at 2,500.

Hence, he added that the EC had appointed assistant registration officers at Malaysian missions overseas to facilitate the overseas voting process.

mykad counter 051105On the issue of automatic registration, one of the Bersih 2.0 demands, Ambiga dismissed the EC's excuse that it would force people to vote, and that it would lead to a low voter turnout rate.

She argued that if the people are automatically registered as voters when they reach 21 years of age, they still have a choice whether to vote or not.

As for the problem of lower turnout, Ambiga countered that the outcome of automatic registration would result in the opposite, as it overcomes people's laziness in getting themselves registered under the current system.

She added automatic registration is highly doable if the National Registration Department (NRD) database, that is linked to the EC, is clean and has high integrity.

However, Wan Ahmad insisted that “in a functioning democracy, people should be given a choice and you don't force people to register if they are not interested in politics”.

Another reason against automatic registration is that 40 percent of the population do not change their registered address in their MyKad to their current residential address, therefore they would have to travel to another constituency to vote if the automatic registration system is based on the information in their MyKad.

Wan Ahmad also disclosed that the EC had submitted the proposal to the government but the latter was not convinced.

On the proposed biometric verification system, many of those present had raised their doubts including the high probability of failure in recognising finger print especially when one grows older.

These are among the other issues touched on at the forum:

Minimum 21 days campaign period

Ambiga

• Longer campaign period is crucial especially for postal voters residing overseas, as the ballots take a longer time to arrive at polling stations.
• We not only want to know what the party's manifesto are but we also want to know the candidate's portfolio.
• It will also allow candidates more time to disseminate information to rural areas and work the ground.

Wan Ahmad

• 21 days of campaigning period may be too much but seven days too little and the EC is seriously considering extending into a reasonable period.
• Police personnel on duty during elections have said that they don't have enough manpower to stand-by for 24 hours.
• longer campaign period it incurs additional cost.
• Malaysia is very advanced in information and communication technology, as there are rarely any new political parties, the manifestos of the party can be download off the Internet.

Free and fair access to media

Ambiga

• Malaysian mainstream media fails to practice proportionate, fair and objective reporting for political parties of all divide.
• EC must exercise to press for all media agencies, especially state-funded media agencies such as Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM) and Bernama to allocate proportionate and objective coverage for all political parties.

Wan Ahmad

• The government argues that RTM is official broadcast station and they are worried if it is opened up to all other parties it will be abused to confuse the public.
• The are no such predicament for other private stations and we have written to them and encouraged for equal coverage be given.