EC amendments on postal voting and barring mobile phones comes under fire...

The changes to postal voting announced by the Election Commission, including one forbidding political party agents from having handphones in polling and counting centres, has drawn fire from election watchdog Bersih 2.0. Expressing concern over the move, its president S Ambiga said the changes involving postal voters, as announced by commission chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, were insufficient to guarentee free and fair elections.

In announcing this, Abdul Aziz told the Star yesterday that postal voting for police and armed forces personnel had been redefined as advance voting from the next general election. The new advance voting, he reportedly said, would be conducted fully by commissioned officers without the presence of the personnel's superiors,as practised in postal voting.

Wan Ahmad had said under the new system, there would be specially-designated assistant returning officers to handle the voting process about two days before the election proper. The new process would be used for the personnel and their respective spouses based at camps and district headquarters.

Commenting on this, Ambiga said there have been many changes to the lists of those eligible to cast postal ballots, but voter disenfranchisement of this category of voters remained. "Civil society has long called on the EC to reform the postal ballot process but the recommendations have fallen on deaf ears.

"This poses many questions about EC's credibility - is the EC merely a political tool or does it lack understanding of the rightful purpose of the postal ballot system?

"In principle, the postal ballot system must ensure the facility is available to all and mandatory to none. The EC must attempt to the best of its ability to uphold voters' rights and reduce disenfranchisement," she said.

Ambiga, a former Bar Council chairperson, also voiced concern over the sudden rise in the number of postal voters in two constitutencies - Bandar Tun Razak, and Sri Serdang. Bandar Tun Razak has seen a hike of 4,000 new postal voters and Sri Serdang, by another 6,000.

"Bersih 2.0 questions the sudden increase of voters which could be an indicator of many factors, which may include a redelineation process or registration of military spouses.

"In addition, the EC must clear the confusion over the actual number of postal voters in the Pangkor constituency, which had seen a sudden increase, as raised by Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir."

Barring mobile phones condemned

Ambiga(left) noted that EC also wanted polling and counting agents from political parties barred from carrying handphones at polling and counting centres beginning with the 13th general election.

"Bersih 2.0 condemns this move as this would make ineffective the crucial role of the polling and counting agents in monitoring irregularities and discrepancies in the polling and counting process.

"For example, the recently concluded Sarawak state elections saw election violations where polling agents found political party members campaigning within polling centres.

"Having their mobile phones while on duty allows the polling and counting agents to effectively feed information on irregularities to their political parties and ensure higher transparency of the electoral process," she said.

Ambiga also questioned EC's reasoning for this controversial move - which is to prevent political parties from spreading information, specifically the unofficial vote tally.

She said unofficial results of the vote counting would still spread, but ultimately, only the official results announced by the EC are taken as final.

"By reducing the transparency of the counting process, is the EC insinuating about occurrences that may take place at counting centres in the coming 13th general election?" she asked.

Bersih recommendations

Following this, Bersih, which is involved in monitoring elections, proposed:

* That the EC acts immediately, using its powers under Sub-regulation 3(1)(f) of the Elections (Postal Voting) Regulations, to make postal voting available to eligible voters living abroad, including security forces, civil servants, students, workers, businesspersons and their spouses;

* This should also include security forces, election workers and EC commissioners on duty and East Malaysians living in Peninsular Malaysia and vice-versa;

* The EC must explain the sudden jump in voters at Bandar Tun Razak, Sri Serdang and other areas with similar tendencies;

* It should immediately withdraw its decision barring handphones to ensure transparency and greater accountability in the electoral process; and,

* The EC must also progressively accept polling and counting agents' use of new methods of monitoring the electoral process, such the social media and other technologies, as long as they do not violate the Election Offences Act 1954.

source:malaysiakini

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