Although the opposition parties have won quite a number of seats and managed to break the two thirds majority in the Parliament, the general elections of 2008 was still a very unfair and unjust election.
I received a lot of complaints from voters, i.e voters’ names missing, voting address being transferred to Kelantan and elsewhere, the most serious one is someone casted votes before the voters concerned showed up in polling stations.
Below is the photo of one of the press conference on this matter during election campaign period, where my old friend Liau Kok Fah of Kinrara found his name missing from the electoral roll, whereas the other couple complaint that their daughter-in-law’s name appeared in electoral roll although she has never registered as a voter.
From left: Mr Chin Soon Choi and his wife, me and Mr Liau Kok Fah at a press conference today.
| Malaysiakini Yesterday, the Bersih coalition has a press conference, below is the original text:
Opposition parties may have won the General Election outright if it was truly clean and fair The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) wishes to point out that the opposition parties might have won the elections outright if it was in fact clean, free, fair and transparent. BERSIH stresses that the Opposition’s impressive gains were the result of a number of factors, and in spite of the numerous incidences of fraudulent practices, irregularities and misconduct — not because of the absence of dirty tactics. The BN won many seats with wafer-thin margins, very likely aided by fraudulent means. The margin was smaller than 20% of the total valid votes in 57 seats, and smaller than 10% in 25 of them. In order to wrest BN’s 30 weakest seats from the coalition to form the federal government, the opposition parties in fact needed only 56,822 more votes. BERSIH dismisses the claims by the PM Abdullah Badawi and other BN leaders that the opposition’s electoral gains proved that the elections are clean, rendering BERSIH’s allegation of fraud baseless. Such a claim is as ridiculous as the assertion that cancer is not a killer because some patients survive the disease. BERSIH appeals to DYMM Yang DiPertuan Agong to appoint a Royal Commission on Electoral Reform (RCER) both to study the entire electoral process and system, and to investigate all allegations of fraud and misconducts in the 12th General Election. In addition, BERSIH will be urging the five Opposition-held state governments to highlight the matter to the Conference of Malay Rulers. BERSIH urges all concerned Malaysians to endorse the petition to the King (the online version is at http://www.petitiononline.com/RCER2008). Members of public are also urged to submit documentation of instances of fraud and misconducts they have encountered for submission to the RCER. Below is a non-exhaustive list of fraud, misconducts and irregularities that occurred throughout the electoral process: 1 Contamination of Electoral Roll 1.1 Fraudulent Registrations Many voters found themselves registered as voters without their knowledge. Often, they are registered to vote in polling stations too far away from where they currently reside, thus allowing for the possibility for impersonators to vote in their place. In some cases too, names were registered at non-existent addresses. 1.2 Fraudulent Transfer of Registration Many voters found themselves transferred out from their constituencies where they voted in previous elections, often to constituencies they have never set foot in. 1.3 Denial of Registration and Arbitrary Assignment of Voters Some voters, including BERSIH activist Liau Kok Fah, were unable to get registered as voters despite numerous attempt to do so. In other cases, family members registered at the same addresses were arbitrarily assigned to different constituencies, suggesting that this could be a ploy or an alternative to constituency re-delineation, which can be done only once every eight years. To add to voters’ frustrations, many in the last year tried to register at post offices but the computer systems were always out of order, off-line or the post office had simply run out of forms. Some names, especially postal voters, are found to be registered multiple times at different constituencies. For example, a computer programmer found that out of a small sample of 563 records from an incomplete database, as many as 278 names were registered twice in different constituencies. 1.5 Deceased Persons in Electoral Rolls Despite the EC’s claim that most of the deceased have been removed from electoral roll, BERSIH still finds these names (and ICs) registered with the Election Commission. 1.6 Back-door reinsertion of dubious names In Kuantan, PKR candidate Fuziah Salleh found that some names which had been removed earlier from the principal electoral roll were ‘reinserted’ as unlawful additions to the supplementary roll. 2 Indelible ink and multiple voting Indelible ink prevents multiple voting as those who have voted will be ‘marked’. Given the widespread instances of phantom voters (or impersonators), the ink would ensure that the phantoms cannot be “recycled”, hence obstructing the big-scale deployment of these voters in certain marginal seats. After agreeing to the idea for nearly a year since mid-2007, the Election Commission abruptly announced its cancellation three days before polling day, citing two very unconvincing reasons. Firstly, a few individuals apparently smuggled some form of the ink into the country and tried to cause havoc by misleading others (by applying the ink on their fingers before polling day), in the hopes of preventing them from voting. No one has been charged so far. Secondly, Article 119 of the Federal Constitution guarantees the voting right of every registered voter, that no one can stop him/her from voting even if his/her fingernail is marked with indelible ink (a sign of having voted). The eleventh-hour cancellation by the Election Commission showed that it had no genuine intention to employ the measure. Despite the National Fatwa Council’s consent in August 2007, the EC has failed not only to identify the claimed constitutional obstacle, but also to table the amendment to the relevant by-law “Elections (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981″ for the Parliament’s approval before its dissolution in March 2008. Its failure to provide for the legal basis was but a convenient excuse for the cancellation of the plan. 3 Postal Voting There were 221,085 listed postal voters in the General Election, constituting 2% of total voters. Of these, 61% were military personnel and spouses who voted at army barracks, 38% were police personnel and spouses who voted at police stations, only 1% were Malaysians studying or working for the civil service abroad. 3.1 Lack of secrecy and confidentiality The postal voting system is designed so that both Envelope A (containing the ballot) and Envelope B (containing Envelope A and the Form B which details the identity of the voter with his/her signature) were numbered. Furthermore, Form B needs to be signed by a witness who is usually a superior officer for the military or police voter. This makes the choice of the voter completely traceable, resulting in a fear of retribution that deters voting against the ruling party. 3.2 Possible proxy voting and ballot stuffing As the candidate’s election agents are not allowed to observe the entire voting process in military barracks and police personnel, the process is open to manipulation through proxy voting and ballot stuffing. 3.3 Alternative form of gerrymandering Due to the lack of confidentiality and a possibility of vote-rigging, the ruling coalition enjoys “strong support” amongst postal voters, sometimes as high as 90%. The arbitrary assignment of postal voters to any constituency makes that an effective alternative to gerrymandering. In Kuala Lumpur, the sole seat won by the BN out of a total of 11 had a slim majority of 8,134 votes (constituting 19% of valid votes) while postal voters constituted 26% of the total electorate. In other words, BN could have been wiped out in K.L. if it had not been ‘saved’ by postal votes. 3.4 Multiple voting As stated in 1.4, the problem of multiple voting by postal voters is a serious and very real issue. 3.5 Misinformation The Election Commission itself was ill-informed about postal voting procedures for overseas Malaysians. EC secretary Kamaruzaman misled overseas Malaysians by claiming they could apply to register as postal voters until 27 January, when in fact under the election by-laws, only postal voters whose applications were received in time for the last revision of the electoral roll could vote. The EC’s misleading advice simply demonstrates its incompetence and disrespect for due process. 4 Campaign Period From the outset, BERSIH has been requesting for a campaign period of 21 days, half of what the British gave for the first national elections in 1955. The Election Commission however only granted 13 days. Albeit being the longest since 1986, it was less than two-thirds of BERSIH’s demand. A longer campaign period would have allowed the electorate, especially new voters, to gather as much information as possible in order to make an informed choice. 5 Media Access Through concentrated media ownership, the Malaysian media was highly controlled. The print and electronic media did not only bombard the voters with election advertisements from the BN, but coverage of candidates and election news was seriously skewed. To take the New Straits Times as example, a Malaysian Media Monitors report found that 77% of news items in the three days before polling day was either positive articles about BN, news relating to BN or negative news regarding the Opposition. Opposition parties and candidates were hardly offered the opportunity to reply to negative allegations. 6 Bribery Although the Election Offences Act 1954 explicitly criminalizes bribery, traveling subsidies as much as RM 200 per person were given openly by a self-proclaimed NGO to Kelantanese to return to their home state to vote. No investigation was carried out by the police or the Election Commission. 7 Campaign Finance Although the Election Offences Act 1954 imposes expenditure caps of RM200,000 for a parliamentary candidate and of RM100,000 for a state candidate, such caps were completely ineffective as the parties were not taken in as accounting unit. It is an open secret that millions ringgit were pumped in by BN into every parliamentary constituency to oil its election machinery. A survey by Transparency International Malaysia found that for newspaper advertisements alone, BN may have spent more than RM7 million for the twelve days before polling day. Such expenses are unlikely to appear at all in BN candidates’ expenditure reports. 8 Administrative Neutrality The outgoing government should act only as a caretaker once the parliament is dissolved. However, right from the caretaker PM onwards, leaders of the incumbent coalition extensively misused their public offices for campaigning. Development projects running into hundreds of billions of ringgit were announced or pledged during the campaign period. State-owned media ran political advertisement disguised as public information back-to-back between news and entertainment slots. 9 Election Commission The Election Commission has failed to demonstrate professionalism and integrity in discharging its duties. Its bias towards BN candidates for example were too obvious on nomination day. In Kuala Kangsar, incumbent Minister Rafidah Abdul Aziz was allowed to contest despite her failure in signing the nomination form – a serious oversight which has caused several Opposition candidates to be disqualified in past elections. Stamp duty for the nomination paperwork, a requirement announced just days before nomination and seen as a way to trap Opposition candidates were generously waived and disregarded when BN candidates failed to produce it. Bersih: Opposition could have won gov’t |
| Azreen Madzlan | Mar 17, 08 4:30pm |
| The Coalition for Free and Clean Elections (Bersih) has claimed that opposition parties could have won the 12th general election had it been conducted in clean, fair and transparent manner.PKR, DAP and PAS took 82 parliamentary seats between them – the biggest number in electoral history – and denied the Barisan Nasional (BN) a two-thirds majority in the 222-seat House.
“We would have had an outright win if this were a free and fair election,” said Bersih’s R Sivarasa, who was elected to parliament. “To win another 30 seats (to form a majority in parliament) all we needed was just another 56,000 votes,” he said. At a press conference today, Bersih – a coalition of NGOs and opposition parties – reiterated a string of previously-reported claims.
Among the allegations were that voters living in one area had been registered in other areas without their knowledge; possible manipulation of postal votes; existence of numerous voters at a single address; and the ‘luring’ of voters to Kelantan by BN leaders. The New Sunday Times reported yesterday that 72,058 ballot papers were unreturned in the March 8 general election. Of this number, 41,564 were parliamentary ballot papers and 30,494 were state ballot papers Election Commission secretary, Kamaruzzaman Mohd Noor was quoted saying that all of the unreturned ballot papers were postal ballot papers. Based on this, Bersih is arguing that most of these could have been in favour of opposition parties or, at very least, spoilt votes. Royal commission idea Pandamaran MP, Ronnie Liu said the missing postal votes are unacceptable and that Bersih was calling for a thorough investigation. “We suspect that the missing votes are for opposition parties or spoil votes. They must have thrown it away because they don’t want to get embarrassed.” he said.
“We challenge the EC to change the laws – no more excuses,” he said. On March 4, the EC abruptly called off its plan to use indelible ink, citing public order and security reasons, but mainly because the Election (Conduct of Election) Regulation 1981 had not been amended to allow for the use of indelible ink. Bersih also dismissed claims by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and other BN leaders that the opposition’s electoral gains proved that the election process was clean. “Just because the opposition won big does not mean the election was free and fair,” said Sivarasa. “We are calling for a royal commission to investigate the electoral process.”
So, will their famous ‘yellow wave’ be back on the streets again? Responding, Bersih committee member Anuar Tahir said Bersih is currently focused on getting public support for its petition to set up a royal commission on electoral reform to investigate allegations of election fraud and misconduct. It is also compiling all complaints and reports on electoral fraud for publication soon. In this respect, it called on the public to send in any evidence in hand. Media criticised Syed Azman, the Batu Buruk assemblyperson, also took the print and broadcast media to task over their election coverage, claiming that it had done much harm to the opposition parties. “It is now time for news people to check their practice (of journalism) and to be more democratic,” he said. He said Bersih could take to the streets again, this time to demand fairer media coverage for opposition parties. Dzulkifli said the EC had promised Bersih at two meetings that opposition parties will get “equal space in the media” but that this had not materialised. Pusat Komas director Jerald Joseph pointed out that the media should serve their audience and not the government of the day. “If the people can send the message that they want change in the government, the same people can send a similar message to the media,” he added. |
These covered ‘fraud, misconduct and irregularities’ during the 13-day election period up to March 8.
Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng (right), who chaired the press conference, said the EC has another five years to change election laws.
Yellow-clad members of the group and supporters had held a huge street protest last November, to back the submission of a memorandum to the King, asking for his intervention to delay the general election until reforms could be implemented.
BN won more than 60% of the parliament seat with just slightly more than 50% of the popular votes. The vast majority seats won by BN, UMNO in particular, are located in rural area.
I suppose this mean rural population is given more weights in voting power. With respect to the rural folks, this means that the urban population, who are more exposed to the internet, foreign tourists, investors and business partners; and generally better educated and undertaking more of a knowledge worker role, are being belittled intentionally by the effects of gerrymandering.
We can talk about developing a knowledge-base economy and naturing human capital all day but limiting the urban votes weightage runs contrary to all that hocus pocus.
Utusan Malaysia really piss me off. They are inciting hatred, misunderstanding and of no real help towards nation building. If Bernama can apologise to Lim Guan Eng, what is Utusan doing? It’s a disservice to the nation and I wonder if any wise muslim can clarify that false news reporting can be construe as “fitnah” in islam?
“Pimpinan” belum kasi arahan samada kita masih perlu pakai baju kuning setiap sabtu, atau memakai baju pasukan F1 atau EPL kegemaran masing-masing.
Now that the opposition parties have won control of 5 state governments and denied BN two third majority in the parliament, do the next stage by petition for a Royal Commission on Electoral Reform (RCER) in Malaysia.
If you want to have a better future for our children in Malaysia, do your part by signing the on-line petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/RCER2008/petition.html
This is one way to bring our message to the Government.
Don’t just sit there, stand up and be counted! We want a fair and transparent election.
WHY DO WE NEED TO REFORM THE ELECTION COMMISSION?
1) Gerrymandering. The discrepancy between number of voters in voting areas is too great. The smallest parliamentary seat (Federal Territory, Putrajaya) has only 6,608 voters while the parliamentary seat for Kapar in Selangor has 112,224 voters. What this means is that one vote in the Putrajaya parliamentary constituency is equivalent to 17 votes in the Kapar constituency.
2) Phantom voters. A common tactic is to ‘buy’ the identity card of the voters. Party members from the ruling parties will then vote on the voters’ behalf. Random checking of a person’s identity must be conducted using those finger print checking device (like the bank use). Any voting done on another person’s identity must be made a serious offence under the election law. Now you know why the indelible ink was withdrawn at the last minute by the SPR (Election Commission).
3) Postal votes. The rules on postal voting must be reviewed, tightened and amended. The current rule favours the ruling party as the armed forces personnel and policemen who vote by ‘postal voting’ would obviously not jeopardize their career or promotion prospect by voting for the opposition. Voting under postal voting is not secret as it is under the watchful eyes of the senior officers. Christina Liew of DAP (Api-Api) lost due to postal votes. The ruling party has control of 250,000 postal votes!
4) Spoiled votes. How do we define spoiled votes. It is very easy to turn good votes into spoiled votes (by adding one more x to the ballot paper). Are spoiled votes being verified and watched over by the party representatives? In marginal areas in which the winning margin is razor thin, the so-called spoiled votes need to be scrutinized.
This is nothing surprising. Three elections ago, my name was thrown to an address in Taman Cheras whereas I have been staying for nearly 10 years in taman mutiara, cheras. It was my persistence in checking the electoral rolls that I found my name in Taman Cheras. My patience paid off and immediately after the elections, I made a complaint to the Election Commission and in the next registration exercise, I submitted another application and thereafter, my name remained where it is supposed to be. These are very, very dirty tactics by the BN government with the Election Commission as its abettor.
Teresa,
Good news that Perak Buntong State Assemblyman quit DAP. It shown that the arrogant of some leaders in DAP caused non mainstream not be respect and care.
Teresa,
Perak not stable now. DAP leaders should take precaution action to prevent more State Assemblyman to quit. Now 30 to 29 in Perak.