The Election Commission has invited Bersih to observe the Aug 4 Sungai Kandis state seat by-election in Selangor, for which there will be a 14-day campaigning period.
Bersih executive director Yap Swee Seng told Malaysiakini that they received a letter from the EC on July 6 inviting the electoral watchdog group to observe the Sungai Kandis by-election.
Yap said Bersih would be writing to the EC for terms of reference before making any decision and urged the EC to make the terms available to the public.
“The problems were in 2013, when several NGOs were invited to conduct (election) observation. One of the conditions was that they were not allowed to publish the observation report.
“We think it’s an unjustifiable and unreasonable condition imposed on NGOs. That’s why we want the EC to make public the terms of reference.
“They (EC) mentioned that they are open for all NGOs to apply to observe the by-elections. At the same time, they should disclose what the terms of reference are for these NGOs to conduct election observations,” Yap (photo) said.
The Bersih executive director also pointed out their concern with the limitations placed on observing organisations, as stated in the EC’s letter.
Each organisation would only be allowed to dispatch four representatives and all their representatives have to be Malaysian citizens, aged at least 21 years, Yap said, citing the invitation letter.
“We think (this) is also not reasonable because if they are going to invite NGOs to conduct election observations, they should just be open for the NGOs to decide how many people they can dispatch, instead of imposing limits on numbers.
“They should be open to foreign observers as well, and the terms of reference should be the same.”
Asked how many observers Bersih considers would be appropriate, Yap said that there should be at least 109 independent observers – one for each voting stream in the constituency.
“If we are talking about proper election monitoring and observation, there should be independent observers in each of these voting streams.”
Yesterday, the EC announced that unlike in the 14th general election, any NGO will be allowed to apply to observe the Sungai Kandis by-election.
The by-election was called following the death of PKR incumbent assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei on July 2.
This will be the first by-election following the May 9 general election. -Mkini
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