Little is known about the research group which the Election Commission said has been invited as a polls observer for the coming 14th Malaysian general election.
Yesterday, Election Commission (EC) chief Mohd Hashim Abdullah announced that besides observers from 14 countries, the EC had also invited the Cambridge-based Malaysian Commonwealth Study Centre (MCSC) as an international election monitor.
His announcement did not spell out MCSC's role, nor were journalists able to quiz Mohd Hashim about it as the EC chairperson ignored all questions from the media after his announcement.
Checks online by Malaysiakini showed few mentions of MCSC except for the fact that it is possibly based at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is led by one Dr Anil Seal, a Cambridge-based historian from India.
MCSC itself does not appear to have a website. A handout by the EC said it was a research and support centre for election bodies.
Several other websites listed it as a funder for academic work in the energy and agriculture sectors while another site said it was one of the funders of the Malaysian Commonwealth Scholarship scheme.
The centre is also stated as having a partnership with local public university Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
No information could be found about its members, board of directors or it previous election monitoring work.
'Never heard of them'
Electoral reform NGO Bersih executive director Yap Swee Seng (photo) told Malaysiakini that he had never heard of the MCSC.
"I don't know whether they actually exist.
"It is very strange to include a group that no one has ever heard of when there are so many international groups out there that are reputable election monitors.
"For instance, there is the (US-based) Carter Center and in Asia, we have the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel). Why were these groups not invited?" asked Yap.
Anfrel programme specialist Kristina Uy Gadaingan, who has observed elections in eight countries, said she had not heard of the MCSC either.
Kristina added that Anfrel had previously reached out to the EC asking for information about gaining accreditation to monitor the GE14, but was ignored.
"There are no accreditation procedures published so we tried contacting Hashim and another commissioner about this.
"But until today we have not received a response from them," she told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Besides the MCSC, Hashim announced that observers from Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Timor-Leste, Azerbaijan, Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan have accepted invitations to observe the 14th Malaysian general election.
Of these countries, only Timor-Leste is considered a "free" democracy by the latest Freedom House report which classifies Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan as "consolidated authoritarian regimes".
Hashim said the international election observers would be allowed to observe nomination day, which falls on April 28 and early voting processes, along with voting and tallying centres. - Mkini
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