‘Clean up the electoral roll, redelineation can come next’

The electoral roll is mired with dubious characters, thus the redelineation process can wait, says Bersih’s S Ambiga.

KUALA LUMPUR: The present electoral roll should be cleaned up first before any redelineation process takes place, said Bersih co-chairperson S Ambiga today.

“We strongly object to the redelineation process as we believe that the electoral roll must be cleaned up first,” said Ambiga who again stressed that the top Election Commission (EC) members should step down over their failures to conduct clean and fair elections.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim on Monday said that the redelineation process of electoral boundaries will proceed despite doubts raised on the integrity of the EC.

Shahidan said the process will be completed by 2015, admitting that the review of the electoral boundaries, which was last done in March 2003, was delayed due to the 13th general election (GE13).

Ambiga however questioned why should the EC rush in the redelineation exercise as the next general election is five years away.

“What’s the rush? If you want to do a redelineation process, you should not base it on the current electoral roll which has many problems.

“Why is the EC not giving commitment to clean up the roll?” she asked.

She added that the EC has no respect for the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) as it has not concluded its report on the undocumented migrants in Sabah.

“The EC should at least wait for the findings of the RCI,” she said.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming quipped that as many as 50,000 individuals were revealed as dubious voters, and that there should be no redelineation process as long as the EC does not clean up the electoral roll.

Batu MP Tian Chua on the other hand hit out at Shahidan, saying he had displayed arrogance on the matter.

“Saying that there is no need to consult anybody has really displayed his arrogance,” he said.

Shahidan said the federal constitution does not state that political parties need to be consulted on the redelineation process.

Yesterday Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim also hit out at the EC over their failure to conduct the redelineation exercise in accordance to the Federal Constitution.

He blamed the EC for failing to observe the constitution in holding the redelineation exercise within the allowed time frame. As such, he said, the entire EC leadership should resign.