Tindak Malaysia challenges Tunku Aziz to respect & the EC to Enforce the Voter’s Right to Secrecy At Elections!

ARCHIVES 2013
By admin-s

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It appears to be a concerted attack on Tindak Malaysia by a person who have not attended our polling agent training programmes. Yet he took it upon himself to condemn us. We are very sad and disappointed with Tunku Aziz’s allegations.

pywong, Tindak Malaysia 

We refer to Tunku Aziz’s accusations against Tindak Malaysia of plotting to cause chaos in:

WHO ARE WE?
Tindak Malaysia is an electoral movement made up of Malaysian volunteers who care for and want to do our bit for the nation. We do it through voter education and polling agent training for the public. 

  • Our strategy is To Educate, To Empower, To Mobilize and To Act.
  • Our Goal is to Free and Fair Elections

WHY US?
We are puzzled why the Election Commission (EC) would make use of Tunku Aziz to do their dirty work of demonizing Tindak Malaysia for them? Are they afraid to face Tindak Malaysia?

Since July 2012, after their one and only briefing for Tindak Malaysia at EC HQ in Putrajaya on the polling process and indelible ink, we have been trying to engage the EC in more dialogue to clarify and improve the polling procedures. We sent repeated emails to them seeking clarification.

It was only when everything else failed that we had to resort to press releases and videos to reach out to the public to explain what are the problems with the current polling process. And they are serious problems.

WATCH OUR VIDEOS
You can study some of the problems at YouTube, myDurianTV (or bit.ly/myDurianTVinTM):

  • EP03 Indelible Ink,
  • EP04 Phantom Voters,
  • EP05 Hidden Dot
  • plus a few more coming up on Transparency in the voting process, Election Cost and Time available for a voter to vote).

ROLE-PLAY DEMO ON ‘AJARAN SESAT’
We even invited the EC Chairman and Deputy Chairman to come for an ‘Ajaran Sesat’ Role-play Demo this Sat, 13th Apr 2013 from 2pm – 6pm at S20, Mosaic Community Studio at Bandar Utama Center Point, PJ to review and correct us on our training methods. We will present through role-play with the participation of the audience to identify which parts would constitute ‘ajaran sesat’. And if they are too ‘busy’ to attend, to send their experts on law and polling processes instead.

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?
Finally, after all the sound and fury created by Tunku Aziz, if we are to clear through the smoke and obfuscations, what really is the issue?

The EC is an election management body appointed by the Yang DiPertuan Agong on the basis of public confidence in them. 

The issue “Is this election managed by the EC for”:

  1. UMNO/BN, or
  2. The Rakyat?

If an election is managed for the Rakyat, why is Randomizationan issue?

WHAT IS RANDOMIZATION?

Randomization is a process whereby ballot papers are issued to a voter from anywhere inside the ballot book so that no one can match the serial no. of the ballot paper with a voter, in order to protect the secrecy of his vote. During the public hearing by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform (PSC) during Dec 2011 in Kota Kinabalu, the Deputy Chairman of the PSC enthusiastically supported Tindak Malaysia’s proposal on randomization. Or least he appeared to be. He even went to the extent of suggesting that the EC clerk should tear the whole ballot book, place the ballot paper face down and allow a voter to choose any piece. Unfortunately, this was not included in the 22 recommendations in the final report of the PSC issued in Apr 2012.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Tindak Malaysia has trained thousands of Malaysians on voter education and polling agent training all over the country. Talking to the people, a constant theme kept recurring. Voters do not trust the EC and were worried that their votes were not secret. 

ELECTION INCIDENCES

This was reinforced when:

· BN politicians go round threatening the people “We know how you vote!” 

· EC Clerks record the voter reference no. on the ballot paper counterfoil even though it is an election offence since May 2006,

· Presiding officers recite the serial no. of the ballot paper as a voter enters the polling station (Apr 2011, SK Tanjung, Batu Danau, Sarawak), again an election offence,

WHY ARE EC OFFICIALS ABLE TO ACT WITH SUCH IMPUNITY?

Because Section 6 of the Election Offences Act states:

Offences against this Part

6. (4) A prosecution for an offence under this Part shall not be instituted without the sanction of the Public Prosecutor.
Like Prime Minister Najib Razak declared in the Sibu By-election in May 2010 “You help me, I help you!”

WE HAVE A CRISIS!

Public Confidence in the EC is at a rock-bottom and Public Confidence of the EC members is a requirement specified Federal Constitution Article 114 (2). If they cannot command the confidence of the public, they should do the proper thing and step down. Instead they try every trick possible to frustrate the people’s desire for Free and Fair Elections. And instead of facing the problems head-on, the UMNO/BN and the EC resort to propaganda warfare through the Mainstream Media to demonize their critics and then send in the Police to harass them.

IS VOTER SECRECY PROTECTED BY LAW?

Voter secrecy is protected under the following Election Acts or Regulations:

· Election Act, Section 13 (2) states that the vote shall be secret.

· Election Offences Act, Section 5 Maintenance of secrecy at elections.

· Section 9 Undue influence

· Conduct of Elections, Regulation 13 (3) requires a screen at the voting counter to maintain secrecy.

· Regulation 19 (2) As each voter requests for a ballot paper….. This does not specify that the ballot paper has to be issued sequentially. There is no prohibition against a voter asking for a random paper.

· Regulation 19 (5), (7) & ( all support the requirement to maintain secrecy of voting.

So Tindak Malaysia challenge:

  1. Tunku Aziz to declare that he respects the Voter’s Right to Secrecy At Elections &
  2. the EC to Enforce the Voter’s Right to Secrecy At Elections!

To the EC: Implement Randomization for this election to prove your sincerity.

REPEAT INVITATION TO BOTH TUNKU AZIZ AND THE EC. 
Come, if you dare, this Sat 13th Apr 2013, 2pm – 6pm at S20, Mosaic Community Studio, Bandar Utama Center Point to have a dialogue with us in presence of the public and the Press. Don’t hide behind the Mainstream media and throw your wild accusations at Tindak Malaysia.

By the way, Tunku, you really should do your homework. It is clear you have not attended any of Tindak Malaysia’s PACABA Training. If you had and if you had asked about randomization, you would have known:

In a meeting in October last year, Pakatan Rakyat and BERSIH 2.0 pleaded with us to stop the teaching of randomization. They explained that the Deputy EC Chairman in an election briefing in Johor Bahru claimed: “We have consulted with the Attorney General on the issue of randomization and the advice we got is that any voter who asks for randomization will be “invited” to leave the polling station without being given the ballot paper.” 

We were shocked that the EC would countenance such an act. Under Section 4(d) of the EOA, it is an election offence to prevent a legitimate voter from voting. The penalty is two years jail or up to five thousand ringgit fine or both. 

Why would the EC would put their presiding officers at risk and resort to such a measure to prevent a voter from ensuring the secrecy of his vote?

Is it to inflict fear in the voter?

If a voter had his finger marked by Kerani Pengundian KP2 and then have his ballot paper refused by KP3 because he asked for randomization, and evicted, he would be in a very difficult situation. There could be chaos if the EC resorted to such underhand tactics to prevent randomization.

To avoid the risk of the EC abusing their powers and prevent a voter from voting, Tindak Malaysia has since Oct 2012 stopped the teaching of randomization. When a participant queried us why we stopped teaching randomization, we explained that we had to avoid chaos in the polling station and the risk of a voter losing his vote. We told them “If you see randomization in the polling station, you will know that particular presiding officer is fair and respects your right to secrecy of voting. If you don’t see randomization, you know that the EC is trying to cheat you. In that case, punish them by voting accordingly!”

Regards,

Py wong 
Tindak Malaysia
[email protected]
Forum www.tindakmalaysia.com Registration www.network.tindakmalaysia.com/


Personal – wong piang yow
Tindak Malaysia – tindakmalaysia.com 
Malaysia Electoral Reform Program – 1 Juta Rakyat Menyokong Reformasi Sistem Pilihan Raya
FAQ – Tanya Tanya Tindak Malaysia – Ask Tindak
Rat Race System – Malaysians4Change


Malaysians4Change – piang yow wong
http://bit.ly/myDurianTVinTM
myDurianTV

 



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