Election Commission must be non-partisan

Indelible ink will not do but an unbiased EC will

It was interesting to know that indelible ink is to make its debut in our coming general elections. It is an attempt by the Election Commission (EC) to improve the system of voting in the country to make it fairer to all parties. These include the use of indelible ink and transparent polling boxes. Are these measures the only ones that that are really required?

Indelible ink used to mark the left index fingers of voters will may help to reduce multiple voting by the same individual but is multiple voting a main cause of fraud in our elections? Use of indelible ink also has its own problems which will definitely crop up when used for the first time.

In an era of sophisticated computer technology, many advanced countries are moving towards a more computerized system including online voting. Wouldn’t it be a backward step for us to resort to marking our fingers with indelible ink? Why shouldn’t we adopt more modern computerized methods of preventing electoral fraud? Don’t we have the knowledge and capability to do so?

The EC may want to copy the use of indelible ink as is practiced in India, the largest democracy in the world. The use of indelible ink may be practical there considering its huge electorate that runs into hundreds of millions, spread across a huge subcontinent. Furthermore the vast majority of the voters are poor and degree of illiteracy high. Even there, with the rapid socio-economic developments, the government is slowly trying to resort to more modern methods of preventing election fraud.

If there is anything the EC wants to copy from the largest democracy, it should be the way their election commission functions; it is truly independent and there is no way it allows itself to be manipulated by the party in power. The election rules are enforced fairly regardless of whether the party is in power or the opposition. The government machinery and all national media are freely assessable to all contesting parties without prejudice.

In our country there is blatant abuse of all the government machinery and the mass media by the ruling party. The ruling party has the sole monopoly over the media with hardly any coverage of the opposition. If they report on them it is invariably their negative aspects. Doesn’t the opposition in our country have any positive points in their favour?

Bribery of the rakyat seem to have become institutionalized and legalized before elections. Millions of taxpayer's money is freely ditched out to the people to secure their votes. If this is not bribery then what in the world is it? It must be stressed these funds are the hard-earned money of taxpayers and the government of the day should more prudent and not use them freely to gain votes. Development projects should an ongoing affair not heightened before elections.

There is a need for the people to be wiser in voting only for those candidates with good tract record, honest, integrity and good moral values. They should not be greedy and selfish to succumb to tactics of institutionalized bribery by those in power but rather look objectively at the merits of the candidates they are voting for.

Indelible ink, transparent ballot boxes and other similar measures may be useful but the most important factor is to have a no-nonsense EC that is truly independent and its integrity beyond doubt. It is of utmost importance that the EC must not only be neutral but must also be seen as such. It must act without fear or favour against any party,ruling or opposition, that contravenes the election laws.

The political maturity of Malaysians should not be underestimated and their demands for a transparency, accountability and fairness from the government are on the rise. This was clearly highlighted by the Bersih rally last November 10.The rakyat have proven that they cannot be cowed by high-handed tactics and threats as in the past. If only our EC can rise up to that undisputed and respectable state there will be no need for very elaborate and sophisticated measures to check fraud in our elections.

What we really need is not marking our fingers with indelible ink but for our EC to be neutral. What we need is a transparent EC not transparent ballot boxes. In short we need an EC which acts professionally and not like a branch or division of Umno and the Barisan Nasional.

Dr.Chris Anthony