Electoral Fraud – Part And Parcel Of Our Election Process

The present EC is not capable of conducting free and fair elections. It must be disbanded and a new Election Commission instituted comprising people of impeccable integrity. 
Allegations of electoral fraud – and the Election Commission’s complicity in this fraud – are not something that is new or recent. Such allegations have been part and parcel of every election that has taken place.

If anything, these allegations have become credible because irrefutable evidence of fraudulent registrations have been unearthed in the electoral roll. What we have seen exposed are not few and minor incidences that may be explained away quite easily. Clearly, these are rampant and, therefore, disturbing.

Shady postal votes

While the ‘dirty’ electoral roll is one aspect of the election process that has always been an obstacle to free and fair elections, there are also other disadvantages that the opposition has to contend with.

Postal votes have saved the BN on many occasions. There have been many rumours that top military, police and security leaders have played a vital role in postal votes. It has been bandied about that they instruct their personnel to vote for the BN.

Recently some former military personnel have revealed how they were instructed to vote for the BN on behalf of the entire contingent. As no political agents are permitted to be present while the postal voting process takes place, nobody actually knows how this voting is conducted. 

It is also common knowledge that certain constituencies have seen a surge in postal votes. An entire military contingent can be posted anywhere without any questions being asked thus giving the BN an undue advantage.

Strangely, however, all Malaysians living abroad are not entitled to postal votes even though they are registered voters. Only military personnel, public servants, full time government-sponsored students and their spouses are allowed to vote under the “Absentee-Voters” category.

Time for change

But the EC had never taken the BN to task for their unethical behaviour. This is why the EC is seen as pro-BN and never as pro-democracy.

The present EC is not capable of conducting free and fair elections. It must be disbanded and a new Election Commission instituted comprising people of impeccable integrity. Only then will elections be meaningful.

For this to take place, a new government is necessary; otherwise, it will be the same rotten deal forever.