Legislation needed to vet election candidates, says EC

SHAH ALAM, Dec 24 – The Election Commission (EC) today suggested that legislation be put in place before election candidates could be vetted effectively and comprehensively to make sure that they are clean and free from corruption.

In lieu of this, it is enough for each political party to vet their own candidates internally, EC Deputy Chairman Datuk Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar (pictures) told Sinar Harian Online here.

“It is the responsibility of each party to choose and make sure that their candidates are free from any graft elements ... The matter is up to the parties since it is their right to screen their own candidates,” Wan Ahmad told the daily.

“It is a good suggestion, especially to ensure that all candidates featured are clean candidates.”

However, Wan Ahmad warned that the vetting process can be seen as a hindrance to the democratic freedom that has always been practised in Malaysia.

Wan Ahmad expressed EC’s readiness to work together with the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and political parties on the exercise, but stressed that parties should have prior discussion with MACC before going through with it.

“Actually, the two agencies have been cooperating for quite some time but only in different work scopes, in eradicating money politics and corruption before the election.

“It’s just that we’ve never cooperated in vetting and ensuring the candidates’ integrity,” Wan Ahmad added.

According to Wan Ahmad, the EC’s jurisdiction has only been to vet candidates to make sure that they have never been declared bankrupt and has no prior criminal charges, so that they will not lose their qualifications to contest.

Last Thursday, the Chairman of the MACC Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel Datuk Johan Jaafar had proposed that the government make it compulsory for all political parties to submit their list of candidates to the commission for vetting to ensure that they were ‘clean’ besides avoiding any undesired allegations.

In response, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak threw his backing behind the suggestion by announcing last Friday that all BN candidates for the next general election must be vetted and cleared by the MACC.

The prime minister, who is also BN chairman, said it was standard procedure for BN to send the name of every candidate to the MACC for vetting.

However, the suggestion had not been received warmly by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers, who believed that public asset declaration would make BN candidates appear more credible.

PR MPs suggested that their political foes show their commitment to combating corruption by going the full mile rather than burdening the national anti-graft body unnecessarily, a move they further dismissed as little more than a publicity stunt.

“SPRM’s job is to take action on those who commit bribery, not filter candidates,” PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar said, referring to the MACC by its initials in the Malay language.

“If a candidate goes into elections clean, but after elections he does wrong, (then the) SPRM cannot take action; for what?” he asked.

Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo also explained that MACC has no jurisdiction since it was not set up for the purpose of vetting people, and the exercise would be an abuse of process and public funds.

In retaliation, several BN MPs argued that that a public declaration of assets by potential election candidates may jeopardise their safety, and it is sufficient for them to declare the assets only to the Prime Minister.

“To me, these assets are personal. So to me, it’s enough if (we) declare assets to the Prime Minister.

“We can’t be announcing all our assets to all the citizens? We need to think about the wakil rakyat’s (people’s representative’s) safety,” Kota Belud MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said.