Abdul Rashid speaking during the press conference.
MIRI: The insufficient number of polling centres and the lack of information on electoral candidates have been identified as two major issues to be tackled in elections in Sarawak.
In revealing this, Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, who has been taking part in the running of both federal and state elections over the past decades, said the shortage of polling centres is a huge challenge and this must be addressed promptly to ensure that those eligible are able to vote conveniently.
“In elections, the more people come to vote, the better. So, we want everyone to have the convenience to make it easier for them to vote.
“Secondly, it is about the candidate’s description. The voters must know who they are voting for, so the information about the candidates and so forth must be well distributed, and Sarawak has big problem regarding this,” he told a press conference after officiating at the Open Engagement Programme yesterday.
The programme organised by ERC, a committee under the Prime Minister’s Department, was held at Dewan Baitulmal of Sarawak Islamic Complex here. It aimed at obtaining information and suggestions on electoral reform from all stakeholders, including government agencies, political parties, non-governmental organisations and members of the public.
Commenting further, Abdul Rashid disclosed that issues concerning territorial divisions had also hampered the smooth running of elections here.
“Although some areas have a small number of voters, they have wide area. So, the demand now is for these areas to be reduced again. This is because the people’s representatives serve their people directly and they are required to always be on the ground.
“These people’s representatives want to help the people, so they asked for their areas to be smaller than the existing ones,” he explained.
“I can see that some areas in Sarawak are large and as big as Terengganu, although their population is relatively small.
“However, no matter the size of the community, they need to be paid attention. The needs of the people must be attended to and fulfilled by the party in power, by the government and so on, hence we need more people’s representatives,” he added.
According to Abdul Rashid, the divisions should be based on the size of the area and the number of voters.
“Some urban folk stressed that they have large number of voters without considering that their areas are small. Their people’s representatives can go around the area in one round for just an hour.
“On the other hand, some areas would be impossible to go around even for one month. Their people’s representatives need to ride and paddle boats, enter the woods and so on.
“Therefore, we try to look at it from all angles and be reasonable.
“The townsfolk should be a little more patient and not constantly envy those who are in the rural areas.
“People in the cities have urban services, not like in rural areas. Accordingly, they do not need direct service from their representatives, but in rural areas this situation is very different,” he added.