See Chee How
KUCHING: The Election Commission (EC) must do much more than the ‘finger massage’ procedure to avoid and eliminate electoral fraud.
In pointing this out, Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How said the irregularities and improprieties in the conducts of the EC had yielded a negative public perception on the coming general election despite the recent clarification of EC chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah on the ‘finger massage’ procedure.
“The refusal of the EC to engage with the citizens’ initiated election watchdog organisations in the country and the international observers has cast doubts on the integrity and commitments of the purportedly independent EC to conduct a free and fair election,” he said in a statement here today.
Of late, Hashim had clarified that the ‘finger massage’ procedure involved the inspection of the voter’s index finger before dipping into the supposedly indelible ink is nothing new, as that was practised and used in the 2016 state election.
See continued to add: “In fact, the haste of the EC to rush through the constituency delineation process, ignoring all the fundamental and basic principles of delineation exercises being practised in countries of parliamentary democracies around the world has caused a big dent in the poll process, running up to the coming general election.”
The Parti Rakyat Keadilan (PKR) Sarawak vice chairman stressed that an election must be seen to be conducted in a clean and fair manner.
“It is still not too late for the EC to engage the election watchdog organisations to run through their recommendations for constituency delineation before the EC report is submitted to Parliament for approval.
“The general election should be held back while the EC and the citizens’ initiated civil rights groups are consulted and their inputs considered to put in more measures to avoid and eliminate electoral frauds,” added See.