TI-M hammers EC as unreliable
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) savaged the Election Commission (EC) today for falling down on its job of ensuring free and fair elections in the country.
Datuk Paul Low, the group’s president, said the EC has failed to show that they were “independent” in carrying out their duties even though they were guaranteed autonomy under the federal constitution.
“We cannot rely completely on the EC to enforce these rules… they don’t seem to be independent in practice,” he told reporters today.
Low said that there has been no proper enforcement of existing election laws, and alluded to this being the cause of many election offences going unpunished.
“The EC today is just managing the elections process, not enforcing it.
“There are not too many do’s and don’ts… things are just not clear, borderline on corruption,” said Low.
Low’s stinging rebuke against the commission comes as Sarawak, the country’s largest state, holds its election next month.
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers have consistently accused the EC of failing to be neutral during by-elections, resulting in numerous complaints to the commission.
The EC has, however, maintained that it is impartial and independent, denying allegations of favouring Barisan Nasional (BN).
Today, Low asked for the commission to be bolstered to allow it to clamp down on future electoral abuses.
“The EC has to be strengthened to be given more powers to conduct the elections.
“Many things have happened (during elections), there have been a lot of abuse, practices which may not have been legal, unethical… but election laws have not been that strict in matters of enforcement,” said the TI-M president.
He said that TI-M has proposed 22 reforms to improve transparency and accountability in political financing, under three major themes: institutional reforms, legislative reforms and media reforms.
