Monkey business in Malaysia's Sarawak State Assembly

9 Jan 2015

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sarawak_State_Legislative_Assembly

A lot of monkey business was transacted in the Sarawak State Assembly on 11 November 2014. Thirty pages of theHansard record for the day are dedicated to the discussion of the Composition of Membership Bill, 2014. This Bill increases the number of representatives in the Sarawak state assembly from 71 to 82.

I read the discussion in order to understand the rationale for the increase.

Essentially, the Barisan Nasional Proponents of the Bill said:

(1) We have the right to ask the EC to review the number of Assemblypersons every eight years. The number has been raised three times since the first sitting of 48 Assemblypersons in 1969. In 1985 it was increased to 56 (another speaker said 52); in 1995 it was increased to 62; and in 2005 it was increased to 71. So now we will raise it to 82. (2) We need to increase the number of representatives because the number of citizens and the number of voters has increased. (3) The EC should add constituencies in the interior and in the rural areas.”

Essentially, Opponents of the Bill said:

(1) What’s the rationale for 11? Why not 7 or 17? (2) Since the growth in population and voters is in the urban areas [presumably including movement of citizens from rural to urban areas], shouldn’t the increase, if any, be in urban areas? (3) What’s adding 11 seats going to cost in terms of increased expenses and dilution of ‘voice’ of each Assemblyperson during the rare sittings of the Assembly?

There was a lot of repetition of the criteria the EC must use when conducting a delineation exercise.

Essentially the Federal Constitution lays down four principles for delineating constituencies: (1) It must be relatively convenient for voters to vote on voting day; (2) there must be sufficient administrative infrastructure to carry out the voting; (3) constituencies must be “approximately equal” in numbers of voters, with due allowance for convenience and administrative infrastructure; (4) ties between local communities must be maintained.

The Speaker said abiding by the Constitution when doing delineation is the responsibility of the EC and therefore not to be debated in the Assembly. This cut off talk of malapportionment and gerrymandering, two facets of delineation in which our EC has demonstrated excellence.

The government did not present the additional cost which would be incurred by having 11 more Assemblypersons. One ‘opposition’ speaker estimated that the increase in cost is about RM 3 million per year. Another ‘opposition’ speaker said Assemblypersons already do too little and suggested more frequent and longer meetings of the Assembly.

“Monkey business” means doing activity which has questionable value.

The BN assemblypersons did monkey business when they proposed to increase spending without quantifying the benefits. They did monkey business when they said the decision to increase was driven by increase in population, and then willed the increase to be implemented in rural and interior areas. They did monkey business when they said “we must keep increasing the number of seats” and never touched on the question “how many seats would be too many?”

People who engage in monkey business are deceivers. The State Assembly of Sarawak appears to have more people doing monkey business than any other Malaysian Assembly.

It's clear why the Assembly rarely sits: less sittings means less display of monkey business.

Source: http://write2rest.blogspot.com/2015/01/monkey-business-in-sarawak-state.html

Will we, the 52%, strike back?

Details Created on Friday, 14 November 2014 07:00

 

By Haris Ibrahim

 

11.2 million registered voters cast their votes at the poll at the last general election. 52% voted for a regime change in Putrajaya. I was one of them.

Since the result was announced, to this day I feel cheated.

This week I chatted with Maria Chin Abdullah and Wong Piang Yow on the 'Agree to Disagree…with Haris Ibrahim' show.

And over the last few days, I have ploughed through the report of The People’s Tribunal on the 13^th General Election.

On the Election Commission, the tribunal reported, at page 60 of the report, that it is “hard to escape the conclusion that the EC of Malaysia was designed as an instrument of the ruling party to keep it in power”.

On the matter of constituency boundaries, the tribunal reported that “It is hard to see how having one constituency nine times the size of another in terms of electorate can be described as ‘approximately equal’.

"The EC failed to implement the principle of equal representation in apportionment and districting…there is considerable evidence that these anomalies work in one direction only: to the benefit of the ruling coalition."

To make a long story short, a major factor that led to the 52% being cheated at the 13^th GE was the extensive malapportionment and gerrymandering that afflict our constituencies.

The EC has announced that it is ready to kick off a delimitation exercise which will entail a re-drawing of constituency boundaries, that may even lead to an increase in the number of constituencies, both parliamentary and state.

Should we hope that the EC will look to re-draw boundaries with a view to, as best as it can, equalize the constituencies, or will it continue to serve “as an instrument of the ruling party to keep it in power”?

Maria says she does not trust the EC to serve the interests of the Rakyat.

I, too, do not trust it.

And Wong takes the view that this delimitation exercise offers us, the 52%, the best opportunity to right the inherent wrongs in our present constituency boundaries.

“Haris, we will not have another opportunity like this for another 50 years," was how he put it.

Two things, according to Wong, can be achieved if we are permitted to effectively exercise our constitutional right with regard to this imminent delimitation exercise.

First, we can work towards equalizing our constituencies, aspiring towards achieving the ideal of 1 person, 1 vote, 1 value throughout the constituencies.

Second, and this will go a long way towards helping us achieve the first, to prevent the increase in the number of parliamentary constituencies from the existing 222, which, according to Wong, already far exceeds the number that we actually need.

What is this constitutional right that Wong speaks of? Under the constitution, once the proposed delimitation has been duly gazetted, there is a 30-day period during which objections may be lodged with the EC by a minimum of 100 registered voters in a particular constituency in respect of the proposed re-drawing of that constituency boundary.

Wong warns, however, that there are barriers to the effective exercise of this constitutional right that you and I have.

First, the period for objection is very short: 30 days. Then, you need to have at least 99 others to make up the requisite 100 objectors.

Then comes the biggest barrier.

EC's not being forthcoming with the information that you will need. Let me illustrate this point. I vote in PJ Selatan and Bukit Gasing. EC has just gazetted its proposed delimitation for the whole country. My 30-day period to object has started.

The proposed new boundaries for PJ Selatan and Bukit Gasing are on display at, say, the MBPJ building.

Great. I go and look at it.

But I want to compare this with that of the 21 other parliamentary and 55 other state constituencies in Selangor to see if they are ‘approximately equal’, as stipulated in the 13^th Schedule of the Constitution. No maps of the other constituencies are on display at MBPJ. They are not available online on the EC website.

I call EC and it informs me that I can view the maps of all the other constituencies at the various district offices in all the constituencies!

I tell EC I don’t have the time to go through the state to sight the maps, so I wish to purchase them from EC.

Sorry, not for sale.

So, before the expiry of the 30-day objection period, I will have to travel through the state to the various district offices to sight and make sense of these maps!

Not just me, but 99 others!

So much for EC’s 'Cekap & Iklas' slogan that stares at you when you go to its website!

Are we, the 52%, going to allow the EC to get away with this?

Or do we strike back?

Source: http://www.rakyattimes.com/index.php/columnist/1612-will-we-the-52-strike-back-haris-ibrahim

EC impartiality hinges on judiciary, media and civil society, says political scientist Dr. Sarah Birch

BY ANISAH SHUKRY

Published: 13 July 2014

The Election Commission’s (EC) appointment methods and membership are practically irrelevant when it comes to ensuring free and fair elections, a political scientist said today.

Professor Dr Sarah Birch from the University of Glasgow said what was more important was that the media, the judiciary and the civil society hold the EC to account.

“The qualification and mode of appointment of the EC are less important than the accountability measures. The formal mode (of appointment) doesn’t seem to matter much.

“The EC can even be run by a branch of the government. That’s fine,” said Birch, pointing to Sweden’s EC, which was once run by the tax board.

Birch, who has a Masters and a doctorate in quantitative political science, said that even if some countries ran elaborate measures to ensure the EC members were impartial, the government could always find ways to get the EC to do as they wished.

“So it is up to the judiciary, civil society and the media to hold the EC to account. They are like other civil servants – unlikely to do a good job unless someone is watching. They’ll behave if people monitor them,” said Birch.

Birch was speaking at a public lecture titled “Retaining power through elections: When democracy enables autocracy” at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH). The lecture was organised by Prohamm, Bersih 2.0, and the Civil Rights Committee of KLSCAH.

The EC has come under intense criticism from the opposition and electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0, who have accused the commission as well as its chairman of being biased towards the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

But calls for the EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof to resign have been ignored.

The EC similarly dismissed accredited election observers Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) and the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) findings that the 2013 general election was partially free but not fair.

Birch said that the electoral system in any country would usually get worse before it finally improved, and called this phenomenon an “election tango”.

“In the contemporary world, significant electoral reform, leading to a genuine improvement in election quality, tends to come about following popular protests against electoral malpractice.

“When people periodically and episodically get cheated during election, they get angry. They tend to go out on the streets and protest at the time of elections.

“Then there is mass mobilisation so strong that the government is forced to conduct clean and fair elections. This is what happened with the Orange Revolution in Ukraine 2004, and Georgia in 2003,” said Birch.

She said democratic leaders would also feel compelled to hold free and fair elections if they felt they would garner more support in their country and internationally.

“Take Mexico as an example. Every time after elections, the people protested against electoral fraud and malpractice. And then eventually, after one particularly bad election in 1998, there was top-down reform.

“The government decided they were losing too much legitimacy. They thought they would have more popular support if they had fair elections.

“They won the first time after that, then they lost, then they won again. That’s what happens when you have fair elections,” said Birch.

Last year’s general election in Malaysia sparked off a string of mass rallies protesting the election results and the EC’s seemingly biased conduct.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters were unhappy that the opposition pact won the popular vote, but still lost to Putrajaya due to alleged gerrymandering and malapportionment.

The rallies, organised by PR and civil society, attracted thousands of Malaysians, but the assemblies eventually died down once the new lawmakers were sworn into Parliament.

Birch said that the first-past-the-post system practised in Malaysia was the easiest electoral system to manipulate because it allows gerrymandering, malapportionment, and manipulation of the eligible population.

“It’s easier to manipulate because of the winner-take-all system that magnifies the power at the constituency level and often also at the aggregate level,” said Birch.

She also said the system invited boundary manipulation, which could enable a party to retain power for long periods with only minority support.

“You only have to shift a few votes. Electoral manipulation is more efficient in first past the post, because you only have to shift a few votes if you do it properly.

“It also allows the manipulation of the eligible population – giving out citizenship to those who support the government,” said Birch, prompting cynical chuckles from the audience.

The government has long been accused of awarding citizenship to Sabah and Sarawak’s illegal immigrants to allow them to vote for Barisan Nasional (BN) in the elections.

Earlier this week, Sabah opposition lawmakers demanded that Putrajaya make public the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on illegal immigrants in the state that was submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong two months ago.

They said that the restructuring of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), as announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on July 8 was not enough without a solution to the problem of illegal immigrants in the state.

"We want Najib to make known the content of the RCI report to the public. We have been waiting for two months," Bingkor assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan told The Malaysian Insider.

Kitingan, who is also Sabah Star party chief, said the RCI would be meaningless without action and a solution to the "Project IC" problem.

The Commission which was set up on September 21, 2012, called 211 witnesses in the proceedings which ended on September 20 last year.

Among the notable witnesses were former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former Sabah chief ministers, including Datuk Harris Salleh and Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.

Najib announced on June 1, 2012, that Putrajaya had agreed to set up the RCI to investigate problems related to illegal immigrants in Sabah, including the issuance of Malaysian documents to Muslim illegal immigrants under a scheme known as Project IC. – July 13, 2014.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/election-commission-impartiality-hinges-on-judiciary-media-and-civil-societ

INDICATIONS FROM KAJANG: Simply IMPOSSIBLE for BN to win another general election!

Tuesday, 25 February 2014 12:33

All indications from the 13th GE to now point to the obvious fact that Barisan Nasional (BN) will not be able to win another general election. The reasons for this are wide and varied but most notably are that support for the governing coalition is beginning to go on a downward spiral.

The present furor over the Kajang by-election will serve to confirm that support for the BN is no longer guaranteed as in the past. This is because all indications to the run-up to the 13th GE showed BN losing ground even in constituencies which were considered as their fixed deposit.

The Kajang by-election, expected to be contested by BN-MCA representative, Chew Mei Fun, is really a pitiful situation for the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). In trying to win back the Malaysian Chinese support, they have opted to offer Mei Fun as the “sacrificial lamb” on behalf of BN.

By all accounts, Mei Fun is a solid candidate. She is well respected and admired not only within the Chinese community but also with the other races. This is because she comes across as a sincere, hardworking and caring person.

While Mei Fun’s heart may be with serving the people, she is also seen as being manipulated at present by MCA and UMNO to try and pull off an upset in the Kajang by-election to be contested by political heavyweight Anwar Ibrahim.

The ploy of the MCA leadership is cunning and sly to make use of Mei Fun’s credentials with the people while she comes across as politically naive and gullible in allowing herself to be made use of by the BN leadership.

This is also something sad to witness. Mei Fun’s unquestioning loyalty to the BN is to be lauded in taking on the challenge of standing in the Kajang by-election which is really a political suicide stance by her on behalf of winning back support for BN-MCA.

But given the current political climate and scenario in Malaysia, Mei Fun’s hopes, dreams and aspirations of MCA and the BN regime are expected to come to a dismal end.

The fate of the other candidates in the by-election can be deemed inconsequential as they are just expected to be “passengers” making up the numbers of the by-election.

What the Kajang by-election is also expected to do is to pave the way for Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to seize the power to govern Malaysia from Putrajaya.

Why BN can never win another general election?

While for some Malaysians this might not need any explaining, it is really a matter of time before most Malaysians, especially the voting population, begin to realize why there is a gradual but certain withdrawal of support for BN.

If this withdrawal of voter support for BN was felt and witnessed in the 13th GE, it is now beginning to gain momentum and will continue to do so to the run up to the next general election.

BN is expectedly expected to lose more and more support and there may even be the possibility of a snap general election’s even before BN’s term of government expires.

The actual reasons for this growing show of support to PR and Malaysians of all walks of life turning their backs on BN is simply because the people have had enough. Malaysians are sick and tired and fed-up with the pathetic governance of BN and their corrupt and inept ways.

This is why in many worldwide rankings and ratings Malaysia have witnessed a drop in nearly all of these because Malaysians are terribly unhappy and miserable with how the country is being governed by BN in such a poor and shoddy manner.

The BN government has only themselves to blame for this situation. What is expected to evolve is that the BN leadership will try to curry favor with the people as usual. But this is a case of going off the deep end as Malaysians have had enough of buying the BN bull.

While even with support from the Elections Commission (EC), the next general elections, even though it will still not be free and fair polls, is set to witness an overwhelming show of support by Malaysians for PR that there is no way BN can put a stop to it.

After more than half a century of BN governance, Malaysians especially the Malay heartland is expected to show such great support for PR that it will be a landslide victory for the alternative government to come to power.

How it’s shaping up for the next general election?

Some people might think all this is premature and foolish, the fact that BN is on its way out. But witness the fact that state-by-state there are already changes barely one year after the 13thGE. And most of this openly shows that PR is now the preferred choice of the Malaysian voter.

If in the last general election, PR won the popular vote, barely ten months away and they have seized the initiative to capitalize on the popular vote to make much further gains. This is how the trend is expected to be from now till the next general election.

PR is expected to make gains in every state and federal territory. It is envisaged that Penang, Selangor, Kelantan, Terengganu, Perak, Kedah, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak and Negeri Sembilan and the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is where PR is expected to gain greater favor from the voters.

There will of course be the die-hard BN faithful. But they will be relegated into a minority opposition representing BN in parliament. PR is set to gain a wide show of support and it is beginning to show with the Kajang by-election providing the “acid test.”

The Kajang by-election is set to catapult Anwar Ibrahim and PR to the forefront from which they will be able to dominate and have power and control of the Malaysian voter base. This is the time for which many Malaysian fence-sitters have been waiting for and they are expected to tip in favor of PR.

By going about showing support to PR firmly, the numerous Malaysians who were last minute voters for BN will no longer allow themselves to be swayed or tricked or deceived now by the political ploys of BN. Their show of support most definitely this time round will be firmly with PR all the way. - Malaysia Chronicle

Last modified on Tuesday, 25 February 2014 12:57
Source: http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=232282:indications-from-kajang-simply-impossible-for-bn-to-win-another-general-election&Itemid=2#ixzz2uK9PP8ym 

Malays losing out in unfair drawing of electoral boundaries, say analysts

BY SHERIDAN MAHAVERA
FEBRUARY 15, 2014
LATEST UPDATE: FEBRUARY 15, 2014 06:05 PM

Associate Professor of Singapore Management University Dr Bridget Welsh makes her presentation during the Bar Council's public forum at MBPJ Civic Hall, today. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, February 15, 2014.The Malay supremacist argument that election boundaries were drawn up in such a way as to give the Malay-Muslim community more power since the 1970s has actually done the reverse, a forum was told today.

Singapore Management University associate professor Dr Bridget Welsh said the votes of Malays living in urban areas are now worth less in value than those of Malays who live in rural areas because of disproportions between voter populations in rural and urban seats.

She was among speakers in the "Towards a Fairer Electoral System" forum that pointed that more Malays are moving and living in urban areas specifically in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, and that their votes, with those of other urbanites, would be worth less if the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) continues to influence drawing election boundaries according to ethnic lines.

Their argument refutes claims, particularly by former Election Commission chief Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, that the commission had drawn up electoral boundaries, called redelineation, to protect Malay political power.

When he was in charge, Abdul Rashid had overseen four redelineation exercises.

Welsh said that Malaysia's unequal electoral constituencies – where sparsely populated rural seats have more parliamentary representation than densely populated urban seats – have led to a situation where different Malaysians have different sets of political power.

"So you have Malays who go and live in Butterworth (Penang) for example, whose vote is one third the value of their parents who live in the kampungs," said Welsh who has wide experience studying Malaysian politics.

"This discriminates against people who migrate to urban centres. It discriminates against the middle class and the young. This is not an issue of discrepancies between ethnic groups anymore," she said.

Abdul Rashid's statement concerning redelineation was made last year well after he had retired from the EC.

His statement on what occurred under him had proved claims by electoral reform groups such as Bersih 2.0 and Tindak Malaysia and political parties such as those in Pakatan Rakyat that the redelineation exercises were flawed and biased.

In her presentation to the forum, Welsh argued that Malaysia was moving away from the five international best practices that are supposed to underlie any redelineation exercise, namely, impartiality, equality, transparency, representativeness and non-discrimination.

She said redelineation was becoming more motivated by ethnic sentiments than by citizenship, and this was dividing Malaysians.

But the ruling coalition's use of redelineation to cement its power eventually backfires down the line.

This is seen in how the aim of creating seats with diverse communities or mixed seats in the last exercise in 2003, supposedly because non-Malays were then solidly behind BN, cost the ruling coalition in the 2008 general election.

"Political players will adjust according to their situation... So if the ruling coalition continues to try and use redelineation to strengthen their power and polarise Malaysia, it will only weaken its own position," Welsh said. – February 15, 2014.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/unfair-drawing-up-of-election-boundaries-has-not-benefitted-malays-say-foru

Pemantau delivers damning verdict on GE13

Lisa J. Ariffin

 | September 11, 2013

Bersih's citizen monitoring group, Pemantau, concludes that GE13 was not clean and fair.

PETALING JAYA: The 13th general election was neither clean nor fair, said Bersih’s citizen monitoring group, Pemantau, in its report on electoral irregularities.

Pemantau, which consists of Bersih, Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) and human rights group Pusat Komas – hoped their report would help the public to decide if the Election Commission (EC) should be held accountable for electoral irregularities that happened during GE13.

“The entire political culture needs changing. The inheritance of this culture and lawlessness has been going on in Malaysia for so long,” said Bersih’s Yasmin Masidi, said during yesterday’s launch of Pemantau’s election observation report titled “Clean and Fair?”.

“This all takes place in a context where the institutions believe they can get away with things (election misconduct). This needs to change,” she added.

Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah lamented that if the EC had recognised Pemantau and allowed observers into polling stations, the report would have been ‘more comprehensive’.

“The reports gathered are based on witnesses’ accounts of what transpired during the polls,” she said, referring to incidents of political violence, illegal campaigning, conveyance of voters and even harassment of election observers.

“With only 2,000 of us, we could not cover the whole country but what is stated in the report is enough for the EC to take action,” she added.

Asked if the GE13 results should be declared “null and void” in light of numerous electoral misconduct, Mafrel chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh said that it was not up to Pemantau to make the call.

“We must go back to laws of the country. We have election petitions.

“We must go through the process of law before we can say the election is null and void,” he said.

However, Syed Ibrahim said that it was possible for the EC to conduct fresh election if ‘the public raise a lot of concern.’

Maria then disclosed that Pemantau was looking into producing the full report in booklet-form to be distributed to the public.

“We will give it back to the people. We will also give it to every political party, government departments, ministries and the EC,” she said.

Change is inevitable

Meanwhile, Bersih co-chairman S Ambiga urged the people to hold on to their hopes for change.

“Change is not easy and it takes time. But change is inevitable… it has already started. Malaysians are more aware of what’s going on around them,” she said.

Ambiga also reiterated her NGO’s call for the incumbent EC leaders to resign.

“We need to hold the EC accountable. They have one single job, which is running elections and nothing else… they can’t even get that right, or they do not want to get it right” she said, admitting that she believed in the latter argument.

“They have failed in their task and still adamant in staying on. They are not shamed enough to step down. However, I am confident the people will look into that,” she added.

Asked if Bersih was planning to conduct another street rally to pressure the EC chiefs to resign, Ambiga said Bersih 4.0 is ‘inevitable’ if the EC leaders continue to ignore their demands.

The report can be downloaded www.bersih.org.

Source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/09/11/pemantau-delivers-damning-verdict-on-ge13/

Bersih’s tribunal gets Election Commission tip-offs on likely electoral fraud

BY ELIZABETH ZACHARIAH
SEPTEMBER 07, 2013
LATEST UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 07, 2013 11:08 AM

The Bersih People's Tribunal panelists. The tribunal will be one of the avenues for Pakatan Rakyat to voice their electoral fraud claims. The Malaysian Insider pic, September 7, 2013.From the "thousands of complaints" the Bersih People’s Tribunal has received on electoral fraud so far, the surprise has been several "leads" provided by Election Commission officials.

Why this is surprising is because the EC is also being investigated by the tribunal for its conduct in the 13th General Election, said the tribunal's legal team chief, Professor Gurdial Singh (pic, 3rd from left).

The "leads" provided by the EC officers have been investigated by lawyers and the findings will be presented when the tribunal sits from September 18 to 22.

Gurdial said the tribunal is also tasked with finding out whether the EC had acted fairly and independently in carrying out their tasks in the polls on May 5.

Gurdial, who is also Professor of Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Malaya and Director of the Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity Law, said the leads were just a few from "several thousand complaints" on election malpractices the tribunal had received since June.

The tribunal was mooted in response to the public outcry and concerns of electoral fraud and irregularities in Malaysia’s 13th general election.

Bersih's Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan had said that the tribunal may not have any legal standing but will serve as a “moral force” to publicly expose electoral fraud.

"These complaints have come from various sources - observers from political parties, the public and also election petitions from both sides. They have identified themselves by names and contact," Gurdial told The Malaysian Insider today.

A team of 30 lawyers will collate all the information and investigate then follow-up on the complaints.

"We will use complaints by people who can directly attest to what had happened and not just through hearsay and where possible, with evidence such as photographs or documents."

Those who lodged complaints and had their reports verified and investigated, Gurdial pointed out, had to sign a statutory declaration, to add credibility to their statements.

"Those who are in the country will be required to come and give testimony during the proceedings," he added.

He explained that the tribunal has categorised every complaint under several categories of malpractices and it will be presented during the proceedings as such.

"We will look at systemic problems and how pervasive were these problems in the election process," the professor added.

The categories of malpractices include voter choice, or anything that prevented voters from voting who they wanted by promises, inducement, vote-buying, threats, money politics and the abuse of the media.

Gurdial said the other category of malpractice was whether the election process was carried out properly.

"This is where complaints on the indelible ink, double voting, the integrity of the electoral rolls and the abuse of state machinery will be probed," he added.

The last category, he disclosed, was the conduct of the institution which carried out the elections - the EC themselves - that is, if they had carried out their task under the Constitution and did they respond in an unbiased and timely manner to complaints.

The law professor also noted that to be fair, the tribunal had also written to Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

"Tengku Adnan had said that BN had filed 21 petitions, complaining about irregularities that caused their candidates to lose. So we want BN to have a say too," he said, adding that there was no answer yet from the BN on this.

Gurdial, who was also the chief prosecutor of the international Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, said the panel will evaluate the evidence presented and then come up with proposals to reform.

"We are not only looking at problems but also want to recommend improvements," he said.

When asked if he thought whether the government would be open to the recommendations of the tribunal, Gurdial said, "this depends on whether they want to honour the commitment they made to the people or not".

"They (the government) had talked about 'dahulukan rakyat' and such. So, this is the voice of the rakyat. They should be thankful that they will get useful and constructive feedback regarding electoral practices."

The tribunal will be chaired by Yash Pal Ghai, an expert in constitutional law and Head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the UN Development Programme in Nepal, former Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cambodia on human rights and former Chairperson of the Kenya Constitution Review Commission and Kenya National Constitutional Conference.

Other international panel members include Ramlan Surbakti (former deputy chairman of the Indonesian Election Commission) and Kraisak Choonhavan (president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, a former Senator and deputy leader of the Democrat Party of Thailand).

The Malaysians on the tribunal are lawyer Datuk Azzat Kamaludin (former administrative and diplomatic officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malaysia), Dr Mavis Puthucheary (former associate professor from the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya) and Rev Dr Hermen Shastri (general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia). - September 7, 2013.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bersihs-tribunal-gets-ec-tip-offs-on-likely-electoral-fraud

Barisan Nasional would have lost without postal, advance votes, says Merdeka Center

AUGUST 12, 2013
LATEST UPDATE: AUGUST 12, 2013 09:38 AM

Numbers tell a story and the startling story that has emerged from studying the past general election results is this: Barisan Nasional could not have gone back to Putrajaya without the controversial postal and advanced votes system.

These votes alone gave BN victory in 22 parliamentary seats, which made all the difference. Without those 22 seats, BN would have tied with opposition Pakatan Rakyat at 111 seats.

Without those key postal and advanced votes, MIC would be without the two Cabinet ministers Datuk Seri S Subramaniam  (Segamat) and Datuk Seri G. Palanivel (Cameron Highlands).

Several seats in Johor and the Federal Territory would have also fallen to Pakatan Rakyat.

This new information was revealed in a voting pattern study by Merdeka Center, which was obtained by The Malaysian Insider.

Merdeka Center said that after stripping and analysing the data, it concluded that BN could have lost as many as 30 parliamentary seats if it did not win the postal/advance votes.

Data from different voting channels from the 222 parliamentary seats was analysed using a system designed to uncover natural groupings or clusters.

The study was able to show the voting patterns in GE13 and confirmed the rural and urban divide in Malaysia as well as the 20% swing of Chinese voters away from Barisan Nasional.

Merdeka Center noted that without advance and postal votes, BN would have lost 22 parliamentary seats. This finding will cause heartache for Opposition politicians who have been campaigning for the past few years for the abolishment of postal voters, arguing that it provides opportunities for fraud.

Following the general election on May 5, PKR, DAP and PAS filed petitions seeking to nullify election results in several constituencies.

Chief among their complaints was postal and advance voting fraud, pointing out that the few votes the Opposition received through these channels was far fewer than the support shown by ordinary voters across Malaysia.

The Election Commission (EC) said that there were some 372,000 advance or postal voters and they included security forces, EC workers and the media.

Their presence in any parliamentary constituency is significant considering how closely fought the election was. On average there was about 1,100 postal votes and 800 advance voters in every constituency.

The 30 parliamentary seats that BN could have lost without the postal/advance votes are: Segamat (93.3% of the postal and advance votes for BN), Bagan Serai (82.6% for BN), Muar (87.2% for BN), Pulai (88.8% for BN), Jerai (74.2% for BN), Balik Pulau (89.5% for BN), Machang (79.2% for BN), Labis (89.7% for BN), Kuala Selangor (71.7% for BN), Beaufort (71.7% for BN), Kuala Kangsar (76% for BN), Hulu Selangor (83.9% for BN), Sungai Besar (75.1% for BN), Baram (89.2% for BN), Kulim-Bandar Baharu (88.8% for BN), Pasir Gudang (89% for BN), Tangga Batu (86.4% for BN), Titiwangsa (78.9% for BN), Tasek Gelugor (68% for BN), Tenom (87.6% for BN), Bentong (89.9% for BN), CameronMIC president Palanivel won his Cameron Highlands parliament seat thanks to the postal and advance votes. TMI pic, August 12 2013.Highlands (91.3% for BN), Merbok (80.5% for BN), Ketereh (81.6% for BN), Setiawangsa (81.9% for BN), Mas Gading (72.3% for BN), and Keningau (78.4% for BN).

Among the notable politicians in Parliament today only because of advance and postal votes is MIC's president Palanivel. He won his Cameron Highlands seat by only 462 votes. And this after snaring 91.3% of the advance and postal votes.

Also fortunate was Chua Tee Yong, MCA president Chua Soi Lek' son. He won the Labis seat by only 353 votes. His share of advance and postal votes: 89.7%.

In its report, Merdeka Center concluded that "the implication of advance and postal voting on this election will certainly figure strongly as civil society and the opposition continue to pressure the EC for further reforms of the electoral process." – August 12, 2013.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bn-kept-malaysia-thanks-to-postal-and-advance-votes1

Bersih, Pakatan want electoral roll subject to court oversight

BY BOO SU-LYN
JULY 18, 2013UPDATED: JULY 18, 2013 04:19 PM

Ambiga said if the Election Commission wanted transparency, it would not need the contentious section 9A to protect the electoral roll from judicial oversight.KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) launched an online campaign today to abolish section 9A of the Elections Act 1958 that prohibits the courts from reviewing the electoral roll.

Bersih co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan lent her support to the campaign, saying that if the Election Commission (EC) wanted transparency, it would not need the contentious section 9A to protect the electoral roll from judicial oversight.

”The problem we have with 9A is that the EC is the sole custodian of the electoral roll,” said Ambiga at a joint press conference with DAP MPs Charles Santiago, Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng in Parliament here today.

Santiago pointed out that section 9A was introduced after the 2001 landmark court ruling on the Likas by-election in Sabah, where the Kota Kinabalu High Court ruled that the electoral roll for the Likas state constituency contained phantom voters and declared the 1999 polls to be null and void.



"It is clear that section 9A was introduced to enable BN (Barisan Nasional) to protect their phantom voters," said the Klang MP.



"Once an electoral roll is gazetted, it cannot be challenged in court," he added. "The Election Commission has absolute power in controlling the electoral roll, even beyond that of the judiciary."



Santiago said that the "Mansuhkan 9A" (Abolish 9A) campaign was started by him, PAS' Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin and PKR's Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Both Santiago and Nurul Izzah lost their bids in court before the May 5 polls to review the electoral rolls in their respective constituencies.



The two opposition lawmakers said there were phantom voters in the gazetted electoral rolls, but the Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam High Courts ruled against their favour, citing section 9A of the Elections Act.



PR researchers have alleged there are tens of thousands of phantom voters registered on the electoral rolls in states such as Sabah and Selangor.

The EC has disputed the claims, saying that the high percentage of discrepancies in the electoral roll was “normal”.



"Section 9A is an ouster clause as it contravenes the Doctrine of Separation of Powers," said Santiago.

"The role of the judiciary as the arbitrator of rights and duties is completely removed."



The petition is accessible at mansuhkan9A.

Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/bersih-pakatan-want-electoral-roll-subject-to-court-oversight

Election officer arms PKR’s Rafizi with another dart for Election Commission

BY YISWAREE PALANSAMY
JULY 05, 2013

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli said the call by a senior election officer in Sabah to re-register voters was further proof that the electoral system was flawed.

"I want to hear what the Election Commission chairman and his deputy have to say to this," he said.

Rafizi was commenting on the on-going Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in Sabah where the state's election director Datuk Md Idrus Ismail, when giving evidence, said the 13 million voters nationwide must be registered again as the electoral roll was tainted.

Rafizi, who is also Pandan MP, said this clearly showed that the organisation and execution of the 13th general election was highly questionable.

"There are many questions being raised on the ballot paper, the ballot boxes and the indelible ink.

"All these have resulted in the public losing confidence in the electoral system and in the conduct of the polls," he told reporters at the PKR headquarters in Tropicana, Petaling Jaya.

At the same event, PKR candidate for the Tapah parliamentary seat K. Vasantha Kumar said the fact that the presiding officer at the Tapah seat was a MIC division chief is also grounds to question the contest.

"According to election laws, a presiding officer must not hold any political positions but this was not the case in Tapah." he told The Malaysian Insider.

He has also listed, among others, the murder of his former political aide, K. Murugan, 36, as another reason to petition to nullify the result.

Vasantha lost to Barisan Nasional's Datuk M. Saravanan, a MIC vice-president.

He claimed that three ballot boxes which contained early and postal votes for the constituency were removed three days before polling day from the Tapah police station.

"The boxes are for the Tapah parliament seat as well as for the Chenderiang and Ayer Kuning state seats which amounted to 2,195 votes," Vasantha said.

He said that his campaign workers who happened to be at the station questioned the removal of the boxes but were told not to interfere.

"There were six people who loaded the boxes onto a lorry." he said.

Vasantha alleged that the Tapah police station chief had also allowed for the boxes to be removed.

"We have facts and photographs to prove our case."

According to election law, the boxes can only be taken from the police station on polling day. – July 5, 2013.

Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/election-officer-arms-pkrs-rafizi-with-another-dart-for-ec/