Kota Melaka MP demands answers from Azmin on electoral reforms

 

Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong has urged Azmin Ali as head of the special cabinet committee to discuss the Electoral Reform Committee's (ERC) report to respond to a series of questions on the topic.

In a statement today, Khoo said Azmin should address whether or not the report would be made public on whether the voting age would be lowered to 18 and other relevant questions on issues ranging from political funding to the drawing of electoral boundaries.

"The integrity of elections in Malaysia has been a longstanding issue. Political parties and civil society have been campaigning for electoral reforms for the past two decades.

"Under the Pakatan Harapan government, the ERC was formed to study and recommend reforms to the government. The ERC has since completed and submitted its report to the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government in August 2020," he said.

Khoo had questioned de facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan and the PN government during the last Dewan Rakyat sitting on the status of the ERC report and its plans for electoral reform.

"The minister replied that a special cabinet committee had been established to study the ERC report before any decisions are made. This special cabinet committee is headed by Azmin Ali.

"It has been more than six months since the ERC report was submitted to the PN government. Yet, we have not heard any single update or direction from Azmin," he said.

Khoo said that a general election was anticipated within the next 12 months as the PN government continues to tiptoe around the issue of its 'non-majority' in Parliament.

"In any case, the Sarawak state election is supposed to be held this year, barring any restrictions from the state of emergency.

"However, the integrity of the general or state election would be questionable without any meaningful electoral reforms," he said.

Khoo added that Malaysians need to have clarity on the PN government's commitment towards electoral reform.

He posed the following questions to Azmin Ali:

1. ERC Report: Will the government publish the ERC report to the public so that all relevant stakeholders can review and further understand the recommendations made?

2. Undi18: The Dewan Rakyat has unanimously passed a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age to 18 years old. When will the PN government gazette the order to operationalise this amendment to allow over four million youths to vote in the coming election?

3. Automatic Voter Registration (AVR): The Election Commission (EC) has said that the AVR system will be ready for implementation by July 2021. Will the PN government reaffirm its commitment to implement the AVR system by making the necessary amendments to the voter registration regulations?

4. Electoral Roll: Will the PN government allow for an independent audit of the electoral roll to identify and rectify the numerous voter records that are incomplete, dubious, and erroneous?

5. Advance and Postal Voting: What steps will the PN government and EC take to improve the advance and postal voting system so that the system can be further opened up to voters who may not be able to commute interstate to vote, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic?

6. Electoral Boundaries: Would the PN government agree to the establishment of an independent boundaries commission so that future delineation exercises can be conducted fairly and to resolve the widespread malapportionment and gerrymandering in the current electoral boundaries?

7. Political Financing: Would the PN government introduce a Political Financing Act to improve the transparency on political parties' activities and curb money politics?

8. Anti-party Hopping: Would the PN government consider introducing anti-party hopping legislation or recall elections to prevent elected representatives from changing political parties unethically?

9. Electoral Offenses: Would the PN government be agreeable to give enforcement powers to the EC so they can be more effective in taking action against electoral offences, such as vote-buying?

10. Electoral System: What is the PN government's position on reforming the electoral system from the current first-past-the-post to a proportional representation or mixed system?

Khoo said he believed that the ERC report already has many progressive and feasible reforms.

"Therefore, Azmin Ali and the PN government should not continue to sit on the report silently.

"Instead, concrete steps must be taken immediately to implement the recommendations," he said. - Mkini