NIEI: Ban ferrying of voters by political parties during polling

Written by Yong Min Wei (The Edge)
Monday, 12 October 2009 20:57

KUALA LUMPUR: Any form of vote canvassing including transportation by political parties to ferry voters and cheer leading by supporters should be barred on polling day to allow voters peace of mind in casting their ballots, said the National Institute for Electoral Integrity (NIEI).

Its executive director Amin Iskandar said transport facilities provided by political parties on polling day had caused massive congestion outside polling centres while cheer leading and verbal exchanges by party supporters created tensions that would distract voters from carrying out their duties.

“As a substitute, the campaigning period can be lengthened  to such as two weeks for a by-election and a month for general election,” he said at a press conference today on NIEI’s mobile monitoring of the Bagan Pinang by-election.

He said non-government political parties often did not get fair coverage from the national  broadcaster during the brief campaigning, thus the period could be extended in order for all parties to have adequate time to spread their message.

Amin pointed out that the Election Commission (EC) could provide vehicles such as vans, cars and motorcycles to ferry voters to polling centres as an alternative to the transportation facilities provided by political parties.

He said there were allegations that the electoral list for army postal voters that was gazetted and given to the contesting candidates was different from the list that was displayed for postal voting on Oct 8 and Oct 9.

“As such, to ensure that future postal voting process would not be subjected to dispute, NIEI suggested the manner and procedure of postal voting be reviewed and be made transparent and convincing to the rakyat,” he added.

On campaigning expenses, Amin said the Election Offences Act 1954 should be re-drafted to state that campaigning expenses for a candidate in an election should include expenses of the political party that was supporting the candidate, noting that cooperation with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would be able to tighten the monitoring of the matter.

He noted following the Bagan Pinang by-election, NIEI concluded that the total expenses for campaigning for the Barisan Nasional candidate Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad had exceeded the RM100,000 limit as stipulated for a candidate contesting a state seat.

Tags: Bagan Pinang, News on NIEI, The Edge