The Bersih People’s Tribunal lead counsel claimed the Election Commission (EC) had failed in its duty to conduct free and fair elections during the 13th general election in May.
Professor Gurdial Singh alleged that the EC had stood by and not done anything to stop the many irregularities that had taken place.
“The EC is the constitutional custodian of elections. It cannot take a hands-off approach. It has a clear mandate that it must fulfil. It cannot abdicate its duties,” he said on Friday, at the end of the tribunal’s five-day hearing held at a hotel in Subang Jaya here.
The EC had been invited to the tribunal but had boycotted it, saying it had no legal standing.
The aim of the tribunal was to hear evidence about the alleged irregularities in the way the 13th general election was conducted.
In his four-hour submission to a five-man panel deliberating the fairness of GE13, Gurdial highlighted some of the main complaints from members of the public and the opposition party that had been presented with evidence, such as photographs, videos and statutory declarations based on eyewitness accounts.
“Clearly, there are irregularities and systemic problems across the board and it has to be addressed immediately,” he said.
Among the issues raised were the misuse of government machinery, money politics, bribery, intimidation, poor security of ballot boxes and concerns with tabulation and calculation of votes.
“Ultimately, all these affected the result of the elections,” Gurdial said.
“Gerrymandering was evident, causing the ruling party to win despite the majority of votes going to the opposition party,” he said.
Gurdial also claimed the EC was partisan and had made several public statements showing their bias towards Barisan Nasional.
“The EC has refused to acknowledge the tribunal but said that they would be taking note of each and every point raised here. It would be good if they could provide a written response,” he said.
The five-man panel was led by Yash Pal Ghai, an expert in constitutional law and head of the constitution advisory support unit of the UN development programme in Nepal.
During his closing speech, Yash applauded the efforts of the tribunal and said that the panel would try their best to come up with a report within the stipulated three-month period.
“It is a huge task, especially, since the evidence provided was one-sided.”
“However, we will try our best to come up with a balanced report and recommendations,” he said.
Yash added that throughout the tribunal he had heard evidences “that showed that the election process has divided the nation.”
“The situation worries me as I have seen many countries where it starts this way but escalates over time,” he said.
Other members of the panel were former Indonesian Election Commission deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti, former administrative and diplomatic officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Datuk Azzat Kamaludin, in University Malaya’s former associate professor Dr Mavis Puthucheary and general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia Rev Dr Hermen Shastri.-TheStarOnline
