Malaysia's Electoral System Truly Reflects People's Wish - Chandra

PUTRAJAYA, July 28 (Bernama) -- 1Malaysia Foundation chairman Dr Chandra Muzaffar has called on the society to look at the country's electoral system in a fair, balance and objective manner, saying it is not beneficial to label the system as worst, archaic or inapplicable.
Although there are shortcomings in the system which should be rectified, he said, it has managed to uphold the country's principles of democracy because it truly reflects the wishes of the people.
"That is the barometer," he told Bernama, here.
Notwithstanding that, he said, there are also shortcomings in the electoral systems of other countries.
Dr Chandra was asked to comment on the call for reform in the country's electoral system. Although there might be a genuine wish to see reform in the election system, he said, the existing one should not be viewed as outdated.
He added that the present system had managed to reflect the wishes of the society.
"For instance, in 1959, there were apprehensions among the people. This caused the Alliance Party, the coalition prior to Barisan Nasional, to lose two states, namely Kelantan and Terengganu.
"In 1963, the Alliance Party performed better because the people were solidly behind the government at that time due to the confrontation with Indonesia.
"It was the same story in the 2004 general election. The BN performed well because a new prime minister had just taken over the leadership, but the coalition fared worse in 2008. The reason was because the people were feeling uneasy," he said.
On the biometric system, he said, the matter should be studied thoroughly and that discussions should be held with the opposition to explain the system.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced last week that the government would allocate funds to the Election Commission to implement the biometric voter registration and verification system to deal with the alleged existence of phantom voters.
Dr Chandra said: "If the system is to be implemented, there should be consensus from all parties. We don't want a situation where the opposition is rejecting the system and resorting to boycotting the election. This is not beneficial to any party."
Dr Chandra also noted that the opposition was adamant on urging the EC to use the indelible ink system, but said that it too had its weaknesses.
"Although the biometric system may have its own weakness, in my opinion, if we are to compare the two, the biometric system is far better," he said.

tunku : the oppositions just want to show to the world that EC is not transparent but they forget the facts shows otherwise.they are preparing to give excuses . just look during voting, a polling agent from each party that is contesting will be there to witness from start to the ends.the agent will be witnessing the counting till the announcement,still they want to say that EC is not transparent.if EC is not transparent they will not win in the election.if bn can manipulate the voting, will they be without 2/3 majority in the parliament now? what about the states won by pakatan.i think EC should not give much face to these morons. let the people decides comes the next GE.