KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (MAFREL) has started
recruiting volunteers to help it observe the Kajang by-election.
MAFREL chairman Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh told a press conference today that his
group would observe polling at all 15 voting centres and planned to deploy
between 25 and 30 volunteers to serve as static and mobile observers.
He invited interested members of the public to register as volunteers by
contacting MAFREL official Arphan Ahmad by telephone (012-2731016) or email
(arphanahmad@gmail.com
).
He said MAFREL would monitor “all aspects of the election process” from
nomination day to polling day, focusing closely on the following:
Corrupt practices such as vote buying and abuse of public resources;
The level of security provided by police and other authorities;
Incidents of violent and dangerous acts such as the use of hate speech and
racist campaigning.
Syed Ibrahim criticised “certain political parties” for embarking on their
campaigns before nomination day, which is tomorrow.
“We are disturbed that certain political parties have already begun
campaigning even before the nomination day,” he said. “This is in direct
violation of the Election Act, which prohibits any form of campaigning or
publicity works being carried out before the nomination day.”
He urged the Election Commission (EC) as well as the police to be impartial
in performing their duties.
He also suggested that the EC dispense with indelible ink if it “cannot
guarantee that the fiasco of the 13th general election will not be
repeated”.
MAFREL was formed in 2003 and has observed three general elections in
Malaysia. It has also observed elections in the Philippines, Bangladesh and
Afghanistan.
The Kajang state seat fell vacant with the resignation of assemblymen Lee
Chin Cheh of PKR on Jan 27. Polling day is March 23.
