EC to allow GE14 monitors

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission (EC) will allow local and international observers for the 14th general election (GE14).

Its chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah, said the move was to prove the EC was fair and transparent.

“We will be announcing the selected representatives who are supposed to be present during the voting process so the people can see that it is carried out in fairness and transparently.

“Representatives being present during the process as third party observers just shows the EC does not deny them the right to be part of the process,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Mohd Hashim said the monitors were invited from Commonwealth countries and Malaysia’s neighbours in Southeast Asia.

He also said representatives of the election candidates would also be included and would be stationed together with polling agents as well as counting agents while votes are tabulated.

He said claims by certain political parties who question the EC’s transparency in conducting elections were unfair, as the commission has involved both local and foreign observers in previous elections.

“The EC maintains by its stand that the election system practised here is fair and transparent, unlike how we have been described by certain quarters.

“Attitude shown by certain groups disputing its transparency ahead of the GE14 is considered as propaganda to mislead the public and voters,” he added.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said the EC should appoint international bodies such as the Commonwealth Secretariat and the United Nations, just as what former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed had done in 1990.

“In order to create a free, fair, clean and honest electoral process, it is important to bring these international observers.

“Dr Mahathir allowed those from the Commonwealth Secretariat to monitor the 1990 general election,” he said at a press conference in Ipoh yesterday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said that Malaysia’s electoral system was more transparent than ever before, as free and fair elections had been ensured with polling agents, counting agents and the use of indelible ink, among others, of which the chance of cheating was almost non-existent.

Pakatan Harapan deputy president Mohamad Sabu has also called on European countries to urge Malaysia to allow them to send election observers to monitor GE14.