It is shocking that one of the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing’s recommendations announced yesterday was that the election expenses limit will be removed, thus allowing politicians to spend as much as they want in their campaign.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Paul Low said that that putting a cap on expenditure would be unrealistic and unfair as it was a subjective requirement that differed from each constituency to the next.
“For example, if you are a candidate in an urban area, you may need to spend only RM70, 000, but if you are a candidate in Sarawak which covers a vast area, your transport costs alone will be more than RM70, 000”, he was reported to say.
It is baffling that the Committee has missed the most important point and purpose of capping election expenses—to prohibit money politics in general elections.
Paul’s argument that candidates in rural area may be disadvantaged or affected by the expenses limit is not convincing for two reasons.
Firstly, one of the main issues in the general election has always been the complaint by the opposition parties that BN candidates have always overspent big sums which far exceed the limits allowed.
This is therefore the main issue that the Committee should have addressed. Instead, the Committee has chosen to remove the expenses cap.
Secondly, there has not been much objection aired regarding the difficulty faced by rural candidates due to the present cap. Even if there have been objections and complaints, a higher limit could have been proposed for all or just the rural candidates.
So why remove the cap totally?
Below is a 2013 media report on election expenses limit:-
“ EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Omar Wan Ahmad said the maximum RM100,000 permitted for those contesting for a state seat and RM200,000 for candidates vying for parliamentary seats were deemed sufficient.
He also said the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms did not bring up the issue nor did it request for the limit to be raised.
“Since no one, be it Barisan Nasional nor the Opposition members of the committee had brought up the subject, the limit will remain the same for this elections,” he said.
“The EC believes that the amount is more than sufficient,” he told The Star. “We do not want to see wastage.”
So where did Paul and his Committee get the idea that the present limit is insufficient for rural candidates?
The Election Commission has always failed to conduct free, fair and clean elections. But the imposition of the expenses limit has at least, to some extent, prevented the blatant overspending by the candidates.
With the cap removed, one wonders how blatant money politics will become. The Committee should also be aware of the overspending by political parties as well the abuse of government funds by the BN candidates and parties.
To prohibit money politics, election expenses limit should be imposed on the candidates and the parties. The limit amount which can allow some reasonable weightage for rural candidates, should be agreed by both government and opposition parties.