Remove unreasonable restrictions on election candidates

The Malaysian Bar decries the last-minute, unreasonable, arduous and oppressive additional conditions and restrictions that are being imposed by various authorities upon political parties and election candidates for the 14th general election (GE14).

On April 24, the Election Commission (EC) chairperson Mohd Hashim Abdullah announced additional conditions relating to the use of campaign materials in GE14.

One condition is that only the pictures of a political party’s president or deputy president (or their equivalent); or, alternatively, a combination of the pictures of a political party’s president or deputy president or party liaison chairperson (or their equivalent); the menteri besar / chief minister; and candidates of a political party registered by the candidate during the nomination day are permitted to be used on campaign materials.

The EC has offered no credible basis or reason for the sudden imposition of these extra conditions which were made without consultation with all stakeholders.

It would appear that these new requirements are designed to particularly disadvantage certain political parties and political actors, and stymie their election campaign efforts while favouring others.

Earlier, the EC had also amended regulations to require the counting of votes to be conducted simultaneously for both state and parliament seats on polling day. This decision, too, was made without consultation with all stakeholders.

This change will mean that candidates will need to find and train even more counting agents to observe the simultaneous counting in order to prevent the possibility of any misconduct or fraud.

It is also deplorable that the EC has denied the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam)’s application to monitor GE14 especially since it was reported that the EC had invited 14 countries to participate in the May 9 polls as foreign observers and that 14 local non-governmental organisations and university representatives will also be observing the polls.

Further, the Malaysian Bar also denounces the announcement on April 26 by the Perak police chief Hasnan Hassan (above) that election candidates who wish to campaign in constituencies other than their own would need to comply with the 10-day notice requirement under section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 (PAA 2012).

This requirement of a 10-day notice is contrary to section 1(3) of PAA 2012 which clearly states that PAA 2012 shall not apply to “an assembly which is an election campaign under the Election Offences Act 1954”.

Further, there was previously no requirement that the contesting candidate informs the police that he or she is inviting another politician (e.g. from a different constituency) to speak at the contesting candidate’s event.

The Malaysian Bar notes that there were no untoward incidents during the election campaign for GE13 despite the absence of these extra conditions now being imposed for GE14.

These conditions imposed by the EC and the Perak police chief at the eleventh-hour further fuel public perception that the EC and the Royal Malaysian Police are not the independent institutions that they ought to be but instead are partisan actors who serve the dictates of political masters.

The Malaysian Bar urges the EC and the police to withdraw these unnecessary, regressive conditions and hurdles on the electoral process and to play the role of an independent administrator and facilitator of clean, free and fair elections in the interest of the citizens of Malaysia to whom they are ultimately accountable.

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GEORGE VARUGHESE is president, Malaysian Bar. - Mkini