TAMPARULI: The 13th general election should not be held before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms completes its work, United Pasokmomogun KadazanDusun Murut (UPKO) president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said.
Speaking at the Upko Tuaran division’s triennial general meeting here yesterday, Dompok said this is because the select committee is automatically dissolved when Parliament is dissolved to make way for election.
So the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms must be allowed to complete its work before parliament is dissolved, otherwise there is no reason to set it up, he said, adding that if the committee is also dissolved, it could not have served the purpose of forming the committee in the first place.
“Therefore election should only be held after the findings of the committee have been presented to Parliament,’ he said.
According to him, the setting up of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms was announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after the Bersih 2.0 rally.
However, in reality, what Bersih wants has been agreed on by the government even before the movement was initiated.
“I am of the opinion that the people who have doubts must be given the opportunity to voice their grouses which is why I agree that the Select Committee be allowed to carry out its work fully before election is called,” he stressed.
The Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister when asked by reporters later on what he hoped the Parliamentary Select Committee to achieve, he replied, “the first thing is of course to do the necessary (such as to) clean up the system, address the weaknesses whether perceived or real.
“Therefore people should no longer have reason to complain once the system is clean. There is a lot of perception, probably also some truths in the weaknesses of the system and we must be prepared to admit what is wrong and at the same time take credit for what is right.
“We need to do the work and we should have therefore an electoral roll which is beyond reproach in the future, beyond question,” he said.