BN stealing GE13 through election law changes

BN’s proposed amendments to the election laws shows their “unequivocal” intent to “steal GE13", said PKR yesterday.

“Last Thursday, the BN government and their cohorts the Election Commission (EC) clearly demonstrated in unequivocal terms their intent to steal GE13.

“They presented a bill to amend the Election Offences Act 1954 to further restrict scrutiny of the voting process by representatives of political parties and make the system more amenable to manipulation,” said PKR supreme council member Sivarasa Rasiah (right) in a statement.

“The net effect of these changes would have been to greatly reduce the current scrutiny of the voting process,” he said.

He said among the amendments, some were withdrawn after vehement objection from Pakatan MPs.

They include the amendments removing the right of political parties to set up pondok panas to assist voters and amending section 14(1A) so that the EC would dictate the time of arrival and departure of polling and counting agents.

However, BN had used “their brute majority” in Parliament to “ram through” the amendment removing the right of political parties to have representatives observing the process in the EC booths inside polling stations, said Sivarasa.

Pakatan to defy amendments

Sivarasa, who is Subang MP, said BN had put up “lame justification” for the said amendment claiming it “causes difficulties to the election workers".

“When asked for reports of such ‘difficulties’ none were cited,” he said.

He added that it was “apparent was that the BN and EC were not interested in presenting the necessary amendments to the law to implement key recommendations by the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform,”.

The amendments, he said, shows the ruling government’s “real intent was to make the electoral process less transparent and easier to manipulate”.

“It is clear that Bersih 3.0 is needed even more than before,” said the Subang MP.

Sivarasa reiterated that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim warned the BN in his parliamentary speech on Thursday that Pakatan will defy the new provisions even if passed.

“He said that Pakatan Rakyat would not give up the established rights under the law which aided transparency in the process.”