“It will help resolve EC’s bad image problem,” it added. “It would significantly hasten and ease operations as well as reduce errors in the electoral roll.”
A system revamp was needed to ensure that people were able to vote without hindrance.
At present, said Bersih 2.0, the slow six-month period to register and gazette a voter was an unnecessary barrier and shifted the burden onto voters.
Moreover, it said, the EC’s failure to enforce election laws had allowed bribery and corruption to go unchecked.
The EC has not recommended the “caretaker government code” which monitors the interim government from the moment parliament is dissolved to election day.
The NGO was commenting on EC chief Mohd Hashim Abdullah blaming the election body’s bad image on negative perception.
“He failed to acknowledge the EC’s lack of transparency and inaccessibility to vital information,” said Bersih 2.0.
The NGO cautioned that public confidence in the EC was at an all-time low. “Yet, there has not been any sincere effort for free and fair elections,” it said. “The EC has not responded to our various reports.”
Bersih 2.0 hastened to add that it welcomed the EC’s plans to address the perception issue via media and videos.
The NGO reminded Hashim that simply blaming the EC’s bad image on a perception problem did not absolve it of responsibility and accountability.
How the EC conducts itself directly affects how the public perceives the polls body.
Bersih 2.0 cited the EC’s latest redelineation exercise as a case in point.
“It’s unconstitutional and runs foul of the one person, one vote doctrine,” said Bersih 2.0. “There’s widespread gerrymandering and malapportionment.”
“It clearly favours one party.”
Furthermore, it said, important information was difficult to obtain as seen in the case of Haris Ibrahim.
Despite the court ruling the EC was not obliged to give information on redelineation, “it should have provided the details that Haris had requested,” said Bersih 2.0.
Bersih 2.0 also complained there were rampant errors in the electoral roll.
For example, it claimed, voters had been registered in the wrong voting district or in different states, there were repeated entries where people were registered without their knowledge, and there were also phantom voters.
Only the EC was empowered to vet and edit the electoral roll, it said. “Yet these discrepancies remain in the system.”