Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman
KUALA LUMPUR: The nomination period of just one hour should be extended for the convenience of candidates in an election, said Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.
He said the matter was among the 15 reform agendas proposed by the ERC to improve the country’s electoral system to be more transparent and organised.
“We need to make it easy for those who want to be candidates. It is not right for us to give them just one hour… to scramble for nomination with a crowd of supporters cheering and provoking.
“No country does this anymore, so the ERC has to address this so that nominations can be made within five days, for example. Therefore, potential candidates have a lot of time and can quietly go in and register themselves,” he said during a guest appearance on Bernama TV’s ‘Ruang Bicara’ Programme here tonight.
He said among other things that could be done was to provide potential candidates with online registration.
This, he said would ensure that the process was more orderly, peaceful and democratic.
In the meantime, Abdul Rashid said there were also proposals for the announcement of the general election date to be made six months in advance as practiced in developed countries. – Bernama