How to recall an elected representative if voters disagree with the representative’s action eg. defecting from the original party or hopping to another party? This is an attempt towards a workable plan of action for Perak and which should also apply to all other similar situations in Malaysia, for all parties:

The winning votes for the three affected state assembly seats in Perak are as follows:

Changkat Jering: 9,411 (voting rate: 72.85%, out of 24,864 voters)

Behrang: 6,771 (Voting rate: 70.43%, out of 18,552 voters)

Jelapang: 12,219 (voting rate 74.20%, out of 26,157 voters)

From the figures it can be said reasonably that if the same number of voters who brought victory to the elected candidates signed a petition to say that they now want a re-election of their elected representatives, then there is a strong moral case against the representative continuing to misrepresent the voters in the areas.

Look at the figures - from 6,711 to 12,219. These are achievable figures if we go by the huge turn out at the ceramah. If there were 8,000 attendants at Perak Menteri Besar Nizar Mohd Jamaluddin’s recent ceramah, then each attendant just needs to go to Jelapang, for example, to get two signatures from Jelapang voters (there’s a need to verify the names with the official voters' roll). What is so difficult about that?

So if the Perak voters are really into making their voice heard, they can then take a rational action to expose the lack of mandate of the defected reps - perhaps in a matter of one week. That is if they want to do it.

Would this compel the relevant authority to call for a by-election? In Malaysia there is no recall provision in our election laws. But we still go by the voting system where the majority winner is made the representative under a ‘first past the post’ system.

That means a candidate only needs to win against his rival to become a winner/people’s representative. So if his winning majority is replicated in another vote or petition against this representative, morally, the representative has lost his or her mandate.

Some people may well say this has happened. But the fact needs to be proven through the actual recording of a petition, with the voters' names, their MyKad numbers and signatures to allow the voters' status to be verified against the official voters' roll.

If the Election Commission and the Sultan of Perak refuse to allow a by-election then they would have exposed themselves as undemocratic. That is a high price to pay to stick to a representative who has clearly lost the people's mandate.

A good point about this proposal is that anyone can initiate a petition, whether they are party members or not. The only requirement is that the signatures need to be bona fide.

The above suggestion can also be used by the other side ie, Barisan Nasional, if they think that their representative has defected against their wishes. This is suggested as a way towards enabling a recall provision in the Malaysian election law.