To improve democracy, election reform panel moots govt funding for political parties

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 21 — The Election Reforms Committee (ERC) will recommend to the government to allocate funds to political parties.

Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said that in advanced democracies, political funding is aided by the government.

“Political funding is something that we are reviewing. A report will be made and later we will look at election funding where the government will assist political parties financially. In a democracy, the more parties the better.

“Right now I think we have 50 parties but there's only around 10 that are active. The rest are not active. They would submit their annual reports but they can't survive because they have no funds. In most advanced democracies, the government provides financial assistance,” he told a news conference here today.

Currently, the ERC is studying the formula for state funds to be granted to political parties, regardless if they are from the Opposition or the government. A body will be established to control the outflow of the funds.

At the same time the committee also plans on revamping Malaysia's election laws and give the Election Commission (EC) a “bite.”

According to Abdul Rashid, even though the EC oversees the elections, it has no power over political parties and cannot enforce the law. Currently it relies on other enforcement agencies such as the police and the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to enforce its own laws.

“When there's an offence, the EC tells the public to lodge a report with the police or the MACC. What role does the EC have then? They conduct the elections but they can't control or enforce it. We realise this and we want to grant more power to the EC.

“We want to give it fangs where it will not be disturbed, even by the ruling administration,” said Abdul Rashid.

The committee will also recommend that political parties should be registered under the EC instead of under the Registrar of Societies.

The former EC chairman argued that granting powers over political parties directly to the EC will create a better check-and-balance system so as to better deal with errant parties.

In total, the new law and recommendations being prepared by the ERC will look at 15 to 16 components found in advanced democracies and see how it can be implemented in Malaysia.

“Currently we only have two or three out of maybe 15 to 16 components found in advanced democracies in developed countries. The rest are based on standing orders or instructions by the EC.

“We have to remember that elections is [based on and closely tied to] law. It needs law, not interpretation, directives or instructions,” said Abdul Rashid.

Today is the first public engagement conducted by the ERC. The next one will be in Penang, followed by Johor, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak.

Once the engagement period is over, Abdul Rashid expects his committee to submit an interim report to the Prime Minister's Office before it is tabled in Cabinet.

A year after the interim report has been submitted, he plans on submitting the complete election recommendation for the new election laws.

The complete recommendation will be made public, said Abdul Rashid.