This is how the Election Commission helps BN to cheat voters
Written by Kenny Gan, Malaysia Chronicle
EDITOR'S PICK The hallmark of a democratic system is the holding of elections at periodic intervals to allow the people to choose their government. A government which must renew its mandate from the people should result in better and more accountable governance in contrast with an authoritarian system where the ruling regime does not have to face elections.
However elections do not necessarily result in better governance in a one party system where only the ruling party has any chance of winning the election. In a functioning democracy the people must have choice. Regimes which cannot bear democratic competition but still have to face the inconvenience of elections will try their best to remove the choice from the people. One of the most favoured methods is to compromise the electoral process.
In Malaysia, the Election Commission is tasked with conducting elections. It is supposed to be an independent and impartial referee under the direct auspices of the Agung but sadly it has not behaved as independently or impartially as it should. In this article I will point out the many ways in which the EC tilts the playing field to BN’s favour to spare BN from intense democratic competition.
Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating geographic boundaries to establish a political advantage for a particular party. This term was coined after Governor Gerry of Massachusetts who signed a bill to redraw district boundaries to favour his party. The shape of the district formed was likened to a salamander.
The EC has relied on gerrymandering on a large scale. To quote from Bersih 2.0 chief Ambiga Sreenevasan:
“We shared our research, presented slides on the delineation process in 2003. There were astoundingly unusual features, with some constituencies crossing boundaries of local authorities and creating funny shapes,” -
One gerrymandering tactic is to create more seats in pro-BN areas. Needless to say, there were no new seats created in Kelantan. As rural areas are perceived to be pro-BN there is a propensity to create more rural seats and less urban seats. This leads to a big disparity in urban and rural seat size - for example Kapar has 112,224 registered voters while many rural seats have registered voters in the region of 50,000. The Putrajaya seat which is composed mainly of civil servants has a mere 7,000 voters.
After the 1999 general election the EC preferred to create mixed seats in favour of Malay majority seats which may be a hard fight with PAS. These mixed seats were seen as safe seats and unwinnable by the opposition due to voting along ethnic and religious lines with respect to opposition candidates (mainly PAS and DAP) while BN was seen as the only multi-ethnic party. However the 2008 general election has blown this premise apart.
The next delineation exercise started in March 2011 and may take at least a year to complete. Then it has to be approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament but BN is currently short of this majority. Hence it is uncertain whether the 13th general election will be based on any new delineation which must be a relief to Pakatan Rakyat.
Shuffling Voters Around
Even without new delineation the EC can try to assist BN by shuffling voters around. This is illegal as voters can only be moved in a parliament approved delineation exercise (unless requested by the voter with a change in address) but specious excuses are sometimes given such as refining electoral boundaries.
Voters can be moved to different constituencies either to dilute opposition supporters or to concentrate them in a few sacrificial seats. In 2008 DAP’s Teresa Kok achieved the distinction of the MP with the biggest majority of 36,492, assisted in part by many opposition supporters sent to vote for her. More recently the Hulu Selangor and Sibu by-election has seen the EC moving some of pro-opposition voters out of the constituency.
Another trick is to move voters to other polling centres within the same constituency without their knowledge and without informing them. In the Hulu Selangor by-election 20% of the voters were moved from their 2008 polling centres for no good reason. It is unclear what the EC hoped to achieve with this but it could be a strategy to reduce the number of voters by causing less determined voters to give up after turning up at the wrong polling centre.
Postal Votes
Postal voting is available to police, military and other security personnel who by the nature of their duties may not be able to vote in normal polling centres on election day. There is longstanding criticism and suspicion regarding postal votes as observers are not allowed. As postal votes are always overwhelmingly skewed towards BN there are doubts whether the balloting is really secret or even whether votes are genuine. Between the times the votes are collected and produced at the counting centres anything could happen due to the lack of independent monitoring.
Postal votes have been known to save marginal seats for BN after a first count show that BN has lost. A notable example is Najib Razak who lost in the first count of his Pekan seat in 1999 but was saved by postal votes in a recount. There seem to be an uncanny ability by the EC to produce postal votes to save marginal seats even though postal votes are supposed to be tied to the constituency where the postal voter is based. The practice of producing postal votes after and not before a count is extremely dubious.
The Malaysian Territorial Army of reservists is being expanded aggressively. The Defence Ministry is planning to set up additional Territorial Army companies in 58 parliamentary seats by year end and there are rumours that they will be granted postal votes before the 13th G.E.
Phantom Voters
Phantom voters are another shady category. Although the EC insists that electoral rolls are clean it has been proven time and again that they are not with duplicate voters, multiple voters sharing the same address who do not live there and an unlikely number of centenarians. Recently the Perak electoral roll was found to contain more than 1600 centenarians with the oldest voter at an astouding132 years old.
Not removing deceased voters from the rolls has its advantages to BN. It provides more scope for phantom voters without the mathematical inconvenience of the total number of votes cast exceeding the number of registered voters.
The use of indelible ink will help to curb phantom voters as they are usually executed by people voting multiple times. However the EC has refused to implement the use of indelible ink. A proposal to use indelible ink was withdrawn 4 days before polling day in 2008 G.E. after purchase of 47,000 bottles of ink.
Picking Overseas Voters
Under the election laws, four categories of Malaysian citizens living aboard are allowed to cast their votes as "Absent-Voters" which includes military personnel, public servants, full time students and their spouses who may cast their votes in the high commission or consulates in the countries they live in.
So the machinery exists for overseas Malaysians to vote and there is no reason why this facility cannot be extended to all Malaysians residing abroad. Although the law specifies all full time overseas students are eligible to vote in practice only government sponsored students are allowed to vote while privately funded students who probably been denied scholarships are given the shoo-off.
There are an estimated 1,000,000 Malaysians living abroad. Most of them are not supportive of the BN government, having fled to escape race based social injustice so the reluctance of the EC to allow them to vote is understandable.
Making it Difficult for Some Voters
Holding elections on working days is devoid of any logical reason but the EC has held several by-elections on working days where the voter sentiment is seen to be unfavourable to BN. Where the condition is seen to be favourable to BN such as the Bagan Pinang by-election in Negeri Sembilan it is held on Sunday.
Obviously this is a tactic to make it inconvenient for young voters working in urban centres to return to vote. These voters are not perceived to be BN supporters.
The EC’s fear of young voters can be seen in the extraordinary long time needed to register a new voter which can take up to 6 months. In the 1999 G.E., at the height of the Anwar crisis, 650,000 young voters were prevented from exercising their voting right on the specious excuse that there was no time to register them.
The EC has refused to implement automatic registration of eligible voters to replace the present cumbersome process of applying to be on the electoral rolls. There is no reason why the NRD’s database cannot be tapped for automatic registration.
One can only draw comfort from the fact that a regime which fears young voters is on its last leg with more and more young voters replacing old voters with each election.
Non-Enforcement of Election Laws
There are election laws against vote buying and promising favours in return for votes but they have been routinely broken by BN candidates without any action by the EC. This has been done by none other than the prime minister himself made famous by his blatant “I help you, you help me” line used on Sibu voters in a by-election. In the Sarawak state election held in April 2011, vote buying was rampant with several documented cases but the EC has refused to act.
The use of government machinery for campaigning is also not allowed but this is usually ignored by BN. Some government departments like the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli are actively involved in canvassing for votes with threats, intimidation and goodies to the Orang Asli.
Unequal access to the media is another complaint which the EC can act on but does nothing. Not only is the state controlled mainstream electronic and print media is totally inaccessible to opposition parties to broadcast their message but are also used to conduct vile propaganda campaigns against them. Widespread access to the online world in urban areas has helped to negate this BN advantage but the opposition is disadvantaged in rural areas where internet penetration is low.
To press home the BN advantage in information dissemination the EC sometimes set short campaign periods to limit the ability of the opposition to spread their message via ‘ceramah’ (gatherings).
No Fear of Losing Power Means No Democracy
By helping BN retain its grip on power by unfair means the EC is subverting the right of the people to choose their own government. Even worse it encourages the ruling party to be corrupt and abusive by removing or reducing its fear of losing power. There is no functioning democracy if the ruling party can depend on compromised elections instead of popular support to win.
The truth is that Malaysia has never been a real democracy even though we have all the trappings of democracy and hold elections every 4-5 years. No democracy could have survived the sordid execution of Sodomy I and the barefaced attempt to push through Sodomy II. We have been a one party system since independence and all the institutions and instruments of government have been subverted to serve BN and assist BN in maintaining power. This includes the press, the police, the MACC, the Judiciary, the Attorney-General chamber, the Registrar of Societies and the Election Commission.
After the 12th general election there were hopes that Malaysia will evolve into a two party system where democratic competition for votes will help to keep the ruling party in line. On the face of it we should already have a two party system as surveys have shown that 30% of the people will welcome a PR govt while 20% are undecided. Such figures should make any government worry.
However we do not have a two party system yet because the electoral playing field is wholly tilted in BN’s favour. Only when there is free and fair elections will a two party system materialize.
- Malaysia Chronicle
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