'PSC report missing five major Bersih demands'

Bersih 2.0 is dissatisfied that out of its eight demands for electoral reform, the parliamentary select committee's (PSC) preliminary report has missed out five while others have only been partially adopted with the exception of indelible ink.

“Bersih 2.0 reminds the PSC, the EC and the government that the eight demands of Bersih 2.0 are the bare minimum to ensure that the 13th general election will be reasonably clean and fair.

“The public will not tolerate any attempts to use the PSC to divert pressure on electoral reform,” said the steering committee of the coalition for free and fair elections today in a statement.

The five demands yet to be adopted are those concerning the minimum campaign period of 21 days, free and fair access of media, regulating public institutions during elections, and measures against corrupt practices and dirty politics.

The coalition is also unhappy that the report has not addressed the issue of unfair delineation of constituencies.

“We note that there has been no recommendation made to the issues plaguing the process of constituency re-delineation despite strong representations made by Bersih 2.0 and other citizens.

“Reforming the current manner of the drawing of boundaries is equally of grave importance in ensuring that each vote is accorded its due value,” said the coalition.

The interim report by the PSC on electoral reforms was tabled to the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

The document was produced after two rounds of public hearings in Parliament and in Kota Kinabalu.

‘No more excuses’

The coalition also called for the recommendation to remove serial number on ballot papers to be withdrawn, as the move allowed for possible ballot stuffing.

Among the Bersih demands only partially adopted in the interim report is the cleaning up of the electoral rolls, where no “long-term mechanism” has been offered.

On this issue, Bersih recommendations missing from the report were for example, automatic voter registration, monthly revision of the supplementary electoral roll and allowing the rolls to be challenged in court.

Bersih’s demands for reform in the area of absentee voting were also not fully addressed, it said.

Some of these concerned the provisions for military and police personnel that were open for abuse.

“Military and police voters should be allowed to register for their home constituencies rather than where they serve, as in the case of overseas voters,” said Bersih.

“Postal voting must be abolished for all except overseas voters beyond the reach of our foreign missions.

"This is to terminate the flawed practice of allowing postal voters to bring home their ballots and return them some time later.”

Bersih 2.0 said their demands, that were the minimum required for free and fair elections, must be incorporated into the PSC’s final report.

“We hope to hear of no more excuses from the EC, but more action taken towards improving the electoral system,” said the coalition.

To ensure that the PSC’s recommendations were fully implemented, it also called for the EC and related agencies to publish monthly progress reports.

Bersih 2.0's complete responose to the interim report