It is high time that the Election Commission (EC) and the National Registration Department (NRD) worked together to clean up the electoral roll and identity of voters (Pak Lah wants EC, NRD to check electoral rolls).

It is however laughable that Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi thinks it is only the other political parties who are registering phantom voters. Barisan Nasional has been ruling for decades and it has control of the election machinery at all levels, including the EC, the National Registration Department (NRD) and Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM).

BN is the party (as BN is considered one party for voting purposes) — and also the one with the financial means — more likely to commit fraud. We have seen cases of its component parties' fraudulent and corrupt practices as in the Likas by-election, where Yong Teck Lee was returned as the candidate (now disqualified).

Let's face it, the electoral roll issue is just one issue in the conduct of a free and fair election. There is the major issue of re-delineation of constituencies. The BN-sponsored laws to amend several laws on elections is another. Then, there is the judiciary.

In the Sungei Siput case where Dr Kumar Devaraj ran against BN's S Samy Vellu, there were reports by party workers of grave discrepancies on the electoral roll which did not get to be adjudicated in court. The case was rejected on preliminary objections on technical matters related to service of the court documents.

The arguments are not recorded because there is no written judgment given in the case. I think Aliran magazine did some decent write-ups on this case (see also Salbiah Ahmad's Corruption is no wheel of fortune and The phantom voter menace).

It was rumoured that the matter of phantom voters in Sg Siput was raised in a cabinet meeting after the case 'failed' in court. Apparently the cabinet gave instructions that the electoral roll in that constituency be cleaned up after that. If this is true, then it vindicates the Sg Siput petition that the roll for Sg Siput was indeed tainted.

What this story tells us is that there is no transparency as far as the BN is concerned. Everything including the cleaning up of the rolls (as in the Sg Siput case) is decided behind closed doors.

The EC's independence might be compromised in this way as the independence of the judiciary was on election matters. The alleged dirt on opposition however are 'exposed' only because the BN has control of the mainstream media.