Polls not free and fair, says election watch group

8pm, TUES: Yesterday's election is "far from being free and fair". This was the conclusion reached by a regional non-governmental election monitor, Asia Network for Free Elections (Anfrel).

A series of concerns were raised by Anfrel observers at a press conference today, which they said should be addressed to achieve "a meaningful democratic election in the future."

Multiple identification cards with differing names and numbers but bearing the same photographs were brought to Anfrel's attention when it carried out the elections monitoring, said spokesperson Sunai Pasuk.

Although the election was found to be relatively peaceful, it alleged that some political parties could not convey their messages to the public as the media coverage was often biased, unbalanced and at times misleading.

The Election Commission was especially singled out for criticism for failing to ensure a credible poll as it did not take any measures to stop the biased media coverage. It also expressed concern that the voter registration system had deprived 680,000 newly registered voters of their rights to vote.

Anfrel is a regional network of election monitoring and human rights organisations with a mandate to contribute to the consolidation of democracy and democratisation process, particularly the integrity, credibility and transparency of elections.

Its team of 13 observers comprising academicians, lawyers, journalists and human rights advocates from the region had observed the election in nine states including Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Penang, Perak and Kuala Lumpur.

In 1990 a Commonwealth election monitor was allowed to monitor the polls officially but the EC declined requests from organisations which wanted to act as polls watchdogs during the 1995 and 1999 elections.

A local NGO, the Citizens Elections Watch (Pemantau), had also been monitoring the just completed election. It is expected to release a report on its findings soon.

Ajinder Kaur
malaysiakini.com