The Election Commission (EC) should be an independent organisation and not placed under the Prime Minister's Department, a senior academic in Sarawak said today.

Otherwise, the public perception that the EC is not independent at all will remain, the senior academic who asked not to be identified pointed out.

If the present situation prevails, there will always be aspersions and allegations of unfairness, he told malaysiakini.

The senior academic with a local university said there should be an election body comprising eminent people like former judges from both government and opposition who should appoint the staff to run the commission independent of government.

Further, the appointment of the commission members should come directly from the King and not controlled by the Prime Minister's Department, he said, adding that it was time for the government to 'free' the EC.

He was commenting on EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman's statement about several changes to the election rules already approved by Parliament and gazetted recently after the royal assent was given .
Among the changes is that the EC can under certain circumstances now postpone voting or shift the location of a polling station by giving notices to the parties concerned and gazette later instead of gazetting first as was previously the case.

Another concerned the destruction of election papers such a ballot papers after an election not used for any election petition.

Several politicians, especially from the opposition, view certain changes to the election rules as worrisome as it could be abused.

Too much power

Commenting on the same matter, independent election watchdog body Mafrel chairperson Abdul Malek Hussin described the newly-amended election rules as 'vague, ambiguous, wide-ranging and open-ended which could be easily subject to abuse.'

"Why is it necessary for the EC to be given so much powers?" he asked.

The senior academic said if the changes to the rules were generally to improve the conduct of elections then he would welcome it.

"But these changes have been made by the government and the BN is an interested party in the election," he pointed out.

On the Code of Ethics announced by EC earlier in the week, Mafrel said it commended the EC for distributing the Code of Ethics booklets to all candidates in the state election.

'Mafrel recgnises the introduciton of such a code of ethics would help to address certain problems that have occurred in past elections in Sarawak in particular and in Malaysia in general.'

He also said the police and Anti-Corruption Agency should take serious efforts and pro-active measures to ensure there would be no abuse and misuse of public resources, government facilities and machinery for partisan election purposes as highlighted in the code of ethics.

"To support this, Mafrel will deploy observers and volunteers to monitor such abuses and misuse throughput the election campaign period," Abdul Malek added.