Bersih s Demands for Electoral Reforms

Bersih s Demands for Electoral Reforms Bersih 2007 1.Usage of Indelible Ink (which has already been agreed to by the Electoral Commission, but later scrapped) 2.Clean-up of Registered Voters Roll 3.Abolition of Postal Votes, and 4.Access to the government-controlled print and broadcast media for opposition parties. Bersih 2.0 1.Clean the electoral roll 2.Reform postal ballot 3.Use of indelible ink 6.Strengthen public institutions 7.Stop corruption 8.Stop dirty politics 4.Minimum 21 days campaign period 5.Free and fair access to media Bersih 3.0 1. The Election Commission must resign, as it has failed in its responsibility and has lost the confidence of the public. 2. The electoral process must be cleaned before the 13th General Elections. 3. Invite international observers to observe the 13th General Elections. 4. Through BERSIH 3.0, we will continue our struggle for clean and fair elections, assembling and expressing our views peacefully as are our rights as enshrined in the Federal Constitution. Source: http://bersih.org BUZZ CORNER : ELECTORAL REFORMS

Recommendations by Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reform 1. The Election Commission (EC) should work towards automatically registering citizens who turn 21 as voters. 2. EC should allow Malaysians aged 20 to pre-register as voter. 3. Parliament to be dissolved only after its fourth year in session. 4. Establishment of caretaker government to run the country until the formation of a new government. 5. Longer campaigning period before general election - at least 10 days. 6. All campaigning parties contesting in elections to get fair and free access to the media. 7. Allowing Malaysians residing overseas to vote earlier at Malaysian embassies/ missions or through postal voting. 8. EC should study other methods to receive ballot papers via post from Malaysian embassies/missions worldwide directly to its headquarters for counting and other purposes. 9. EC officers be allowed postal voting. 10. EC to allow media personnel the right to postal voting. 11. Provide necessary facilities for voters who want to vote outside of their constituency, especially from Sabah and Sarawak or those who are working in Sabah and Sarawak, without having to go back to their registered constituency. 12. EC should be empowered to cross out any voter's name from the main electoral roll or move them to different constituencies if public complaints against the voters have been proven. 13. Political parties should advise voters who have moved, to change the address on their identification cards at the National Registration Department before registering as new voters or applying to change their polling stations. 14. The EC should examine the system practised in other countries that enables voters to choose between their permanent address (hometown or place of birth) or place of employment as their voting address. 15. Enforce existing rules on those who provide false information when registering as voters. 16. Another enforcement sub-committee under the EC should be created to enforce all the regulations without having to depend on other authorities. 17. The Government should allocate funds for political parties and candidates that win in the elections according to the total number of seats won and the number of votes obtained. Suggestion that the funds be given based on a 50% distribution for the seats won and another 50% for the number of votes obtained. Source: http://www.nst.com.my/latest/psc-tables-22-recommendations-onelectoral-reforms-1.70279

Recommendations by Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral 17.The Government should allocate funds for political parties and candidates that win in the elections according to the total number of seats won and the number of votes obtained. Suggestion that the funds be given based on a 50% distribution for the seats won and another 50% for the number of votes obtained.candidates 18.EC should consider improving the current First-Past-The-Post system (simple majority system) or study other forms of electoral systems such as the Proportionate Representation System. 19.The process of appointing the EC chairman, deputy chairman and members should be conducted like how Federal Court, Court of Appeal and High Court judges are chosen. At present, such judges are appointed by the Yang di-pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister. This is to dispel the perception that the EC is not independent. 20.The EC be given the power to have its own budget and be directly responsible to Parliament to ensure that its objectiveness is not questioned. 21.A service commission be set up for the EC to appoint its own officers. 22.The EC be restructured to ensure that the enforcement of election laws be carried out by EC enforcement officers to reduce the dependency on other parties. vote. An advisory board, to consist of representatives from political parties and non-governmental organisations, should be set up to assist the Election Academy. 24.As a long-term measure, the EC's three responsibilities - to conduct elections, manage the electoral roll and review election constituencies - should each be handled by three independent bodies. 25.Delineation of constituencies: A study should be conducted to see whether Dewan Rakyat seats can be equally divided among Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. The report also suggested that the total number of seats in the Dewan Rakyat be balanced between seats in Peninsular Malaysia, with seats in Sabah and Sarawak. 26.The EC should come up with a fair formula based on a fixed principle in determining the number of voters in a constituency, to ensure that there are no huge disparities among other areas in the state. 27.Establishment of an independent body like Mimos Bhd to help clean up the electoral roll, and another PSC to monitor the electoral roll. 28.EC to display the list of doubtful voters within 45 days after the report is tabled which has more than 50 voters within one address in order for the EC to remove and update the electoral rolls. 23.The Government adds human resource and allocations for the formation of an Election Academy to effectively educate all parties including citizens on their right to Source: http://www.nst.com.my/latest/psc-tables-22-recommendations-onelectoral-reforms-1.70279

Case Study: Norwegian Electoral System Direct election electors vote directly for representatives of their constituency by giving their vote to an electoral list Proportional representation representatives are distributed according to the relationship to one another of the individual electoral lists in terms of the number of votes they have received Voting age is 18 years and this age must have been reached by the end of the year of the election At parliamentary elections, only Norwegian nationals are entitled to vote Other foreign nationals are entitled to vote provided they have been registered as resident in this country for the last three consecutive years before Election Day In the case of all elections it is the municipal authority that is responsible for the practical conduct of the election In the case of parliamentary elections the Storting is itself the appellate body when it comes to the franchise and the right to cast a ballot. For other appeals the National Electoral Committee is the appellate body. Any person entitled to vote at the election can appeal against matters relating to the preparation and conduct of the election in the county/municipal authority area where the person in question is included in the register of electors. An appeal must be brought within seven days after Election Day. In the case of local government elections the Ministry is the appeal body. The Ministry s decisions in appeal cases are final and cannot be brought before the courts for review. Electors who so wish can vote in advance. Advance voting inland starts on 10 August and lasts until the last Friday before Election Day. It is the municipal authorities that are responsible for receiving advance votes. The Electoral Committee decides where advance voting shall take place; this is typically the town hall, the service centre and similar places. It is possible to vote in advance in any municipal authority area whatsoever, that is to say also in other places than where a person lives. The ballot is sent by post to the elector s home municipal area. Electors who live abroad, or who are abroad on Election Day, can vote in advance from 1 July. As a rule advance votes abroad are given to a returning officer at a Foreign Service mission. If it is not possible to go to a returning officer, it is possible to arrange voting by oneself and to vote by letter post. Source: http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/krd/kampanjer/election_portal/the-norwegianelectoral-system/570513.html?id=570513

Case Study: Thailand s Electoral System Prior to the 1997 reforms Thailand used the BV system to elect the House of Representatives. The Senate was entirely appointed. The country s electoral districts were broken down into one-, two- and three-seat districts, with most districts having more than one seat. Seats were allocated by province in proportion to population. Voters cast their votes for candidates rather than parties, and were allowed to vote for as many candidates as there were seats in a district. They could not cast all their votes for a single candidate but could split their votes between candidates from different parties. They could also partially abstain by not casting all their available votes. Parties were required to field a full team of candidates for any district they wished to contest (for example, three candidates in a three-seat district). Seats were awarded to the one, two or three candidates who got the most votes on the basis of the plurality rule. Each party is required to submit a list of candidates for voters to consider, and voters cast two votes, one for a district representative and one for a party list. Candidates must choose between running in a district and running on the party list. The two tiers are not linked: a party s seats in one tier are not in any way dependent on the number of seats it has in the other tier. Creation of an autonomous Electoral Commission to oversee and administer elections New rules governing the relationship between the members of Parliament and the Cabinet Replaced the Block Vote (BV) electoral system that had been in place for most of Thailand s electoral history with a Parallel system made up of FPTP and List PR elements. The 1997 constitution provided for an elected Senate, the first in Thailand s history. Two hundred senators are elected using the SNTV system. The electoral districts range from one to 18 seats in size. The Thai version of SNTV also has an added twist. Constitutional reformers wanted to create a Senate that would remain above the messy partisan fray. As a result, senators are constitutionally prohibited from belonging to a political party and are not allowed to campaign for election. The 1997 constitution also created a second tier of 100 seats elected from a single nationwide district by PR. A party must reach a threshold of at least 5 per cent of the party list votes in order to be eligible for seats in this tier.