Report election offences, urges new EC chief

PETALING JAYA: The Election Commission (EC) has called on all parties who personally have information regarding the violation of any election law to report to the investigation bodies.

New EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said in a statement yesterday that the Commission does not have the power to investigate or prosecute with regard to any election offences.

“According to the existing legislative framework, the EC does not have the power to fine or probe any election candidate or party it represents for any violation of election law, especially provisions under the Election Offences Act 1954.

“We wish to emphasise that the power of inquiry into any allegations of any breach of the provisions is within the jurisdiction of the relevant investigative bodies, such as the police, the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC),” he said.

Azhar Azizan said that the EC has set up a special election campaign enforcement team (PPKPR) to monitor campaigning processes and activities for the Port Dickson byelection, including the recent byelections.

“If the enforcement team has found or witnessed any misconduct personally or directly, we would not hesitate to report it to the relevant investigative bodies,” he added.

However, he noted that the EC would not report any violation of legal provisions that are not witnessed and directly detected by the enforcement team, as it did not have any personal knowledge of the violation.