建议设政党联络委员会 选委会受各界质疑

Political Parties Sceptical About EC's Suggestion Of Liaison Panel

ALOR GAJAH: The ElectionCommission (EC) has come upwith another proposal to ensureelections are fairer and conductedefficiently – a political partyliaison committee.

Its chairman Tan Sri AbdulRashid Abdul Rahman saidyesterday that the committee,comprising EC officials andrepresentatives from activepolitical parties (having membersin Parliament), would serve as aplatform for better understandingon the requirements of politicalparties and the EC.

“I see the need for thecommittee to bring all politicalparties to sit together to discussways to conduct elections in amanner that is fair to contestingparties,” he told reporters afterhanding certificates to EC staffwho were involved in the April 12Machap by-election in Malacca.

Rashid’s proposal comes in thewake of the fracas amongsupporters of Barisan Nasionaland Parti Keadilan Rakyat onnomination day lastThursday for the Ijok byelection,reports Bernama.

He said the EC woulddiscuss with thegovernment to take certainpre-emptive measures toprevent a recurrence ofviolent incidents onnomination day.He said partysupporters walking in aprocession to thenomination centre was apractice by contestingpolitical parties but thenumber of people in theprocession might perhapsbe limited.

“(Actually), theprocession is not in our election rules. Overall, the policeare able to handle the situation.We will leave it to the police. Ourjob is to accept nominations anddetermine the candidates eligibleto contest,” he said.

In an immediate response toRashid’s proposal of a liaisonpanel, some political parties said itwould be useless if it had neitherbark nor bite.

“The committee must havelegal powers,” said Parti KeadilanRakyat information chief TianChua.

He added that such acommittee would be meaningfulonly if what was agreed to wasadhered to by the EC.

“Otherwise, if the EC just setsthe rules and asks us to follow, itwill be totally meaningless,” hesaid when contacted.

Referring to the ElectionOffences Act (Amendment) 2002,Umno information chief Tan SriMuhammad Muhd Taib who isbusy campaigning in Ijok, said theproposal was not new. “This is notsomething very new for us. But we are very open to listen to anyproposals by the EC,” he said,adding that the proposedcommittee seemed akin to thespecial enforcement teamcomprising the EC officers, police,the local authorities andrepresentatives from the registeredopposing political parties set upwhenever an election was called.

Liew Chin Tong, electionsstrategy adviser to DAP secretarygeneralLim Guan Eng said thespecial enforcement team couldonly deal with minor issues in theelection campaign such as partyflags and posters and that it wasvery difficult to come to aconsensus among the enforcementteam members.

“The committee will beeffective only if the bigger issues,for example the alleged votebuyingand over-spending, havebeen dealt with,” he said.

Wong Chin Huat, an academicwho studied elections andelectoral systems in the Universityof Essex, was of the view thatunless amendments had beenmade to the current electoral lawsto allow the committee to havelegal status and power, it wouldonly be just “window-dressing”.

http://203.115.192.117/Monday/index.html, the sun 23/4/07