Bersih: EC chairman unfit for post

His recent rebuke of the 'one person, one vote, on value' concept shows that the current EC leadership is incapable of being election guardians.

PETALING JAYA: The Coalition of Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) slammed the Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusuf’s statement that the “one man one vote” policy is a populist one.

“It was another nail in the EC’s coffin when Abdul Aziz said that the concept of a ‘one person, one vote, one value’ (Opovov) is impractical in an election.”

“The EC has once again shown why the current leadership is not fit to be guardians of a fair election system,” said the Bersih steering committee in a statement today.

“Opovov is fundamental to the whole concept of elections and electoral representation in a democracy,” added Bersih.

According to Bersih, without Opovov, elections would be rendered meaningless and the elector’s vote is valueless.

“In the 13th general election, the elector’s vote amounted to 53% of the total vote count,” Bersih said.

Bersih said that they understand that a concession has to be made to accommodate the current geographical spread of the population in the different states and even within the same states in Malaysia.

‘The Federal Constitution, in Section 2(c), Part 1 of the Thirteenth Schedule allows for malapportionment in favour of rural constituencies that are at a disadvantage to reach electors in certain states,” explained Bersih.

But, they stressed that “this allowance does not mean the principle of Opovov can be made subordinate, and completely inapplicable, as implied by Abdul Aziz.”

Bersih urged the rakyat to be prepared for the upcoming re-delineation exercise that will be done by the EC soon.

“We forsee that this principle will be violated since Abdul Aziz has dismissed it as impractical,” said Bersih.

Abdul Aziz was reported to have remarked about Opovov’s impracticality and its populist policy in an interview with the Malay daily, Berita Harian on July 1.