Thousands have taken to the streets claiming that the election process, including the laws that govern it, are rigged and more and often than not are in favour of the government of the day.

However, senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah argues that the allegations are not true.

Shafee, who appeared as a panellist at ‘The Election Laws, Election Commission and Electoral Reform' forum organised by Association for the Promotion of Human Rights (Proham) at Dream Centre in Petaling Jaya today, said defects in the election laws, if any, would favour any one party.

NONEThe lawyer, who has handled more than 70 election petitions, said the majority of the issues raised in cases pertaining to election matters were not related to the concerns raised by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0).

The petitioners, Shafee (left) said, normally raised issues about the conduct of the election itself or on other technical matters, but hardly were there complaints such as the existence of phantom voters or multiple registration of voters.

"Whether it is a problem with the ballot papers, as it was in a case I handled in Terengganu, or the issue of postal votes, I have witnessed myself that the postal votes in Sarawak were for the opposition.

"We can't simply say that the postal ballot box will side the government," Shafee argued.

"I have seen some provisions in the (election laws) to have favoured the government, but the same provisions are used by the government to attack the opposition... any defects in the election laws affect both parties."

It is not true, Shafee said, that the election processes were in favour of the ruling BN government.

'Judges hearing cases not interested in pursuing defects'

However, he complained, most judges who heard election petitions were not interested in pursuing the "defects" in the election laws in detail for lawmakers to be alerted on the need for changes.

"They resolve cases as though it is a mathematical equation. We could do with judges who are more alert on issues, (and then maybe) we wouldn't have the trouble of outside forces making an issue out of them," he said.

NONEDespite his contention with the way rulings on elections petitions were delivered, Shafee insisted that this was the "best way" to challenge the result of an election and a foolproof measure used in various Commonwealth nations.

However, Bersih 2.0 chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan countered this view, saying election petitions were most of time chucked out on technical grounds.

"It is hardly the best way because it is highly technical. Sungai Siput MP Dr D Jeyakumar, had filed an election petition in once instance of phantom voters in his constituency, but it was thrown out because it wasn't served at the right place or something like," Ambiga said.

She also rubbished Shafee's claim that election petitioners hardly raised issues on a rigged election process or on phantom voters.

"Just because people don't take this to court, it does not mean that it does not exist... it is like saying that human rights abuses do not happen just because there has been no complaint," said Ambiga, who added that election petitions were not answers to "electoral woes".