'Polls panel void if Parliament is dissolved'

Recommendations of the parliamentary select committee on electoral reform will be null and void if Parliament is dissolved before they are implemented, deputy speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar says.

If MPs in the new term oppose the recommendations, the whole electoral reform exercise would be axed, Oriental Daily News quoted Wan Junaidi (left) as saying.

In an interview with the Chinese daily published today, he explained that the select committee would be disbanded if Parliament is dissolved for the 13th general election before the panel completes its work.

In other words, recommendations made by the committee would be void if they were not adopted by the government before the general election.

However, Wan Junaidi said, the new Parliament and government formed after the election would have to decide whether to continue with the work done by the committee.

Should the new government support the electoral reform initiative, it could table a fresh motion to form a new parliamentary select committee to pick up where its previous committee left off, he said.

On the contrary, if most of the MPs in the new Parliament opposed the electoral reform, then it would be shelved.

Panel will need at least a year to work on reforms

Wan Junaidi estimated that the committee would probably need a year to come out with recommendations - and if Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak called for an early election, the electoral reforms proposed would not be adopted in the next general election.

"This also depends on the issues discussed by the committee. It could even come out with recommendations very fast."

On the other hand, Election Commission (EC) deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar told the daily that if electoral reform could not be carried out before the next general election, it would be conducted according to the current system.

Wan Ahmad said that the EC "is prepared to hold the election at anytime".

In a related development, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz (left) said the government would form the committee even if the DAP refused to take part in it.

He told another Chinese daily - Sin Chew Daily - at at his home in Kuala Kangsar that the government would not be held to ransom by the opposition.

"The establishment of the committee is not based on the participation of the DAP. But I think this is just a political gimmick. They are afraid now because previously they thought the government was scared to reform the electoral system."

Nazri claimed that before the government agreed to set up the committee, the DAP did not say that reforms must be made prior to the general election.

The opposition had threatened it would not send representatives to sit in the committee on grounds that the government was not sincere in setting up parliamentary select committee.

It said the proposed composition of the committee - five from BN, three from Pakatan Rakyat and one Independent - was unfair.

The Pakatan Rakyat has also demanded that the committee be chaired by the opposition, as well as a guarantee from Najib that the next general election will not be called until the reforms are implemented. - Malaysiakini