PUTRAJAYA, July 12 — Bersih 2.0 today held its second official meeting with the Election Commission (EC), the second of its kind in over eight years.

The meeting today was regarding the electoral reforms group’s appointment as observer for the Sg Kandis by election.

“Today’s meeting is a historic one as this is only the second time in history that Bersih has met with EC officially,” said Shahrul Aman Mhd Saari , Bersih’s acting chairman said in a press briefing after the meeting.

Shahrul said the meeting with EC was to discuss the terms of reference for the by-election.

“The EC has allowed 38 observers Bersih for the by election but our initial request was to have 109 observers for the 19 polling stations,” said Shahrul.

The other observers invited for the by-election are local think tank, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and polling outfit Invoke. However, they have not replied to the EC's invitation.

Postal voting for the Sg. Kandis state seat has begun and will close on nomination day which falls on July 21. The postal votes will be counted on polling day on August 4.

Bersih is also calling for the removal of six EC commissioners, claiming that they took part in alleged gerrymandering and favoured the previous BN government in its constituency redelineation exercise.