Outrage over new stamp duty rule

Various parties are outraged by the Election Commission’s last minute decision to impose a new regulation requiring candidates to submit a statutory declaration of stamp duty payment on Sunday.

Election Commission secretary Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor announced yesterday that candidates submitting their nomination papers on Feb 24 must include a statutory declaration of stamp duty payment.

Contacted for an explanation as to why the regulation was imposed this time around, he said EC wanted to follow the law.

"It is in the law. We want to fully follow the procedure. It will be in place until the law is revoked," he told Malaysiakini.

When informed that the opposition is crying foul over having insufficient notice to abide by the regulation, Kamaruzaman said over 100 stamp offices throughout the country will be opened until 6pm today and tomorrow.

On why the announcement was made only two days before nomination, he replied: "We only got the legal notice yesterday."

According to Kamaruzaman the validation or franking of the stamps can be done at any Inland Revenue Board duty stamp office nationwide. It has to be done on Form 5 (for candidates contesting in parliamentary seats) and Form 5A (for candidates contesting in state seats), with stamp duties of RM10.

This regulation falls under Section 4(1) of the Stamp Act 1949 and Regulation 4(7) of the Election Regulations (1981) much the dismay of many parties.

Under the Election Regulations, returning officers can reject nomination papers if the forms submitted do not meet all the requirements.

Here are the comments from parties unhappy with the new stamp duty regulation:

The EC is trying to comply with the law. Though the election regulation was never implemented, this time around, it could be due to the growing public concern over the legality and validity of the electoral process.

The EC must consider that political parties may make changes until the last minute, this is very unfair. Under such circumstances, the EC has given a very late time frame and it is totally uncalled for.

From previous elections or even by-elections, I don’t recall this as a condition in the past 10 years of my involvement with Mafrel. With the time frame and the method of making this announcement, how can this reach the public in time? The people can misconstrue this as being politically motivated.

I see no point in starting this regulation now. For political parties to have less than 48 hours notice to comply is not possible. This is not conducive to the electoral process.

(EC chief Abdul) Rashid (Abdul Rahman) told us that this is the law. But why hasn’t this been implemented in the past? For 50 years, the EC did not implement this regulation. So doesn’t this make BN an illegal government all this time? How can he suddenly change his mind and say this is the law and it must be followed?

This is just another ploy by EC to disqualify opposition candidates, they are leaving no stone unturned to ensure victory for BN, by hook or by crook. Why are they putting an extra impediment giving us two days to get it done? EC is up to no good.

It’s utterly ridiculous in their pursuit for BN to win, they would stoop so low. They should have continued with the same practice, they have to be fair. We expect some candidates may get disqualified because of this late notice.

It is ridiculous to impose a new regulation and enforce it two days before nomination day. I dare not speculate the reason why this is being done but it is creating trouble for all of us.

We’re quite angry with this and it proves the incompetence of EC once again. We don’t even have time to protest against this new regulation, we have to get things done.

EC’s move to impose this new regulation at the last minute before the nomination date is highly regrettable. The announcement made just before nomination date is to frustrate candidates that are going to contest in the elections.

We feel that this new regulation is unfair and should be announced by EC right after Parliament was dissolved, not at the eleventh hour.

We hope EC won’t introduce any more new regulations and conditions in the elections in order to allow parties to campaign peacefully. Such regulations and conditions that frustrate candidates and parties only further illustrate the flaws in our electoral system.