The initiative is a collaboration by Bersih, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), Pusat Komunikasi Masyarakat (Komas) and a few other non-governmental organisations.

At a launch event today, civil society groups officially announced the commencement of Pemantau’s operation centre.

Speaking to the media, acting Bersih 2.0 chairman Shahrul Aman Mohd Saari said Pemantau was still open for volunteers to register with the programme.

“Today, 100 Pemantau coordinators will start their observations, assisted by 500 volunteers nationwide.

“The offences to look out for, among others, include treats and gifts, undue government handouts and inducements, use of government machinery, biased behaviour by public institutions, and racial politics,” said Shahrul.

The programme was launched back in 2013 during the last general election. A total of 3,000 individuals registered as Bersih 2.0 observers then.

Shahrul said for the 14th general election, members of the public could still play their part without registering as an observer.

All they had to do was to lodge a complaint of any election offences at the aduan.pemantau.org website.

Bersih 2.0 had found 48 electoral offences committed by political parties between April 2017 and April 2018, following reports to Pemantau.

Shahrul also cited examples of offences detected so far, which included a free giveaway of spectacles, organised by Puteri Peduli and the Pulai Puteri Umno division; Felda handouts; and announcement of government projects.

Others included Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng singing an anti-GST song while officiating a programme offering free tuition classes for students, and mass transfer of at least 1,400 voters into Wangsa Maju, where the voters were not residents at the stated addresses.

The full list of offences can be viewed on the Pemantau website.

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