AZHAR Azizan Harun has made three recommendations he believes will restore equality and fairness in the Malaysian polls process.

The Election Commission (EC) chairman wants to see clauses (3) to (5) of Article 116 of the federal constitution, which govern the allocation of constituencies to various states and federal territories, reinstated.

These subsections call for equal allocation of seats between the federal and state, without causing disparity between these two entities.

However, Azhar pointed out an in-depth analysis of the disparity, which is currently 15%, must be carried out.

“We need a specific number because the EC need not make unilateral decisions later,” he said, after presenting his paper Reforming the Electoral Process to Enhance the Equality of Votes and Fairer Voters Representation, at the Sabah Institute Development of Studies seminar on Strengthening and Restructuring the Critical and Core Institution of Democracy in Malaysia from the Perspective of Sabah.

Azhar’s second recommendation is to revisit and clearly define “weightage”, referring to the assignment of quota, such as the number of lawmakers to a particular segment of the population.

Azhar said, although there is a fixed weightage, there are still no clear formulas to determine its quantum.

As such, this left room for abuse and various interpretations that could cause misunderstandings.

“To resolve this, the EC will have to engage with everyone, such as the civil society groups and decide on a clearly defined formula.

“We need to decide to maintain or modify the present weightage. For instance, the rural areas with little population,” he said.

Azhar said his third recommendation is the establishment of an independent body to serve as a robust check and balance for the EC.

This is with regards to objections, he said, adding that the EC now functions as the proposer but also judge to their own recommendations.

Azhar said he is expected to present his three recommendations to the EC board members for deliberations and if accepted, they will present it to the cabinet for further action. – September 12, 2019.