Bersih tribunal panellists to produce report in 3 months

Panellists at the Bersih People's Tribunal have three months to come with a report and recommendations this week.

On Friday, panellists will hear submission for one last time from the tribunal's lead counsel Gurdial Singh Nijjar, a prominent law professor at the University of Malaya and Director of the Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity.

The tribunal which was convened to investigate irregularities during the 13th general election began on September 18 and ended yesterday.

It featured five local and foreign panellists. The foreign panellists were Yash Pal Ghai, an expert in constitutional law and Head of the Constitution Advisory Support Unit of the UN Development Programme in Nepal, Ramlan Surbakti (former deputy chairman of the Indonesian Election Commission), Kraisak Choonhavan (president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, a former Senator and deputy leader of the Democrat Party of  Thailand).

Malaysian panellists include lawyer and former administrative and diplomatic officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Datuk Azzat Kamaludin, Dr Mavis Puthucheary (former associate professor from the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya) and Rev Dr Hermen Shastri (general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia).

Both the Election Commission and Putrajaya have refused to participate in the tribunal even though they were invited.

Bersih co-chair Ambiga Sreenevasan in her presentation said the tribunal was to find out the truth about what happened during the general election and not meant to cause disharmony among Malaysians.

"We want to find out the truth and justice. This will not destroy the country. In fact this will only make the country stronger.

"The only thing that will destroy our country is corruption," she said after the tribunal session ended.