PETALING JAYA, April 25 — Bersih 2.0 today questioned the Election Commission’s (EC) additional condition on campaign materials which prohibits the photos of other individuals from appearing either alone or alongside the candidate, except for the president and deputy president of the political party.
In a statement, the electoral watchdog said the sudden imposition of new regulations were implemented without any stakeholders’ consultation just before the 14th general election on May 9.
“Bersih 2.0 holds the regulations... as unreasonable, unfair and a violation of the freedom of expression of political parties and demand that the new regulation is withdrawn immediately,” it said.
“Bersih 2.0 questions the necessity and rationale behind the additional conditions imposed by the EC on campaign materials.
“There had been no problems with featuring other individuals in campaign materials of political parties in the past 13 general elections.
“Why are these additional regulations suddenly needed now,” the statement read.
The group also questioned the priorities of the EC, and urged that the commission come out with clear guidelines such as alleged discrepancies in the electoral roll, caretaker government, postal voting and advance voting.
Bersih 2.0 claimed the regulations would effectively ban the appearance of photos of Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in all constituencies contested by PH under the logo of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
