Maria Chin Abdullah, chairperson of electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0, and her predecessor, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, told The Malaysian Insider that the Election Commission (EC) has not bothered to make any changes to the electoral process, which has come under heavy criticism since last year.
"In terms of our demands, there has been no change at all," noted Maria.
Ambiga said: "The EC is incapable of improving. Their aim is not to improve or to provide clean and fair elections. Their objective is to keep the ruling party in power.”
The lawyer and former Bar Council chief was critical of the EC, saying it did not have any "genuine intention" to improve or make the changes that the people were asking for.
"We have not achieved anything of great significance,” she added.
Maria agreed, adding that the EC's present leadership will only act for Barisan Nasional.
"I don't see it moving in any other direction. Their non-action with regard to the violence, vote-buying and other incidents in GE13 tells us a lot. That was very disappointing," she added.
"Of course there were reforms that were put in place but they turned out to be a disadvantage because they were implemented dishonestly," Ambiga said.
Maria said she was perplexed over the usage of the indelible ink, as it worked perfectly during the by-elections after GE13.
"There were so many complaints about the ink during GE13, but after that it worked well. Why couldn't the EC do their job properly?"
The indelible ink, which was used for the first time in the elections last year, was adopted as a security measure to ensure that voters only voted once and to assure Malaysians that the polls were fair.
The ink was meant to stay on for a few days but voters found out that it could be washed off almost immediately, prompting widespread protest from the opposition and the public.
The Election Commission admitted last November that the indelible ink had its flaws; among others, it was washable and took longer to dry and because of that, it left stains on ballot papers.
However, the commission had insisted that the indelible ink would still be used in the next general election.
"Of course, they introduced overseas voting but that, too, had so many problems," Ambiga said.
"The electoral process is not as transparent as we would have liked."
Pakatan Rakyat had attempted to nullify the election results in all 222 federal seats, claiming that the unprecedented move was necessary because of several reasons, including the ink fiasco which it said caused massive cheating in the polls.
They, however, failed in their bid after the High Court allowed the EC's application to strike out the suit.
Ambiga also took the EC to task for promising to come up with guidelines for a caretaker government before the last GE but failed to keep its word.
"This is because the government themselves were breaking all the rules with regards to the caretaker government," she added.
An EC member had revealed after the election last year that Putrajaya had disallowed the commission from preparing the guidelines.
Describing GE13 as the "dirtiest" election in Malaysian history, Ambiga said that she was now concerned about the next polls.
Following the EC's dismal performance in GE13, both Maria and Ambiga expressed concerns over the upcoming redelineation exercise.
"We are very concerned. We have no information about it at all. No maps, nothing. We need the maps in order for the people to say yes or no," Maria said.
Ambiga said: "The EC has no plans to improve themselves, so this is worrying, especially with the redelineation exercise coming up.”
The boundary redelineation process had been regarded as a primary tool in BN's manipulation of the electoral process.
"GE14 will probably be worse than what we saw last year if this continues. It is set to be dirtier," Ambiga added.
The people, Maria said, have a say in how the election is run. "The EC has to learn that people's participation is important."
Source Msian Insider thru MSN
No comments:
Post a Comment