CHAPTER 5: THE NATIONAL ELECTION

THE ELECTION COMMISSION

The Election Commission is an independent body, constituted under Article 114 of the Federal Constitution and thereby the Chairman and members of the Commission are appointed by the Yang Dipertuan Agong, after consultation with the Conference of Rulers, and hold office until they attain the age of 65.

Briefly, the policy of the Election Commission is to safeguard, supervise and maintain the democratic process of the country through fair and just elections. It is the responsibility of the commission to ensure that the citizens are able to elect their representatives by direct votes at any election.

MAIN FUNCTIONS

The Elections Commission has four main functions. The first of these is to divide the country into constituencies. In doing this, the Commission has to bear in mind it has the responsibility of holding three different elections. These are the Fedeal, State and Local Council elections. The boundaries must be fixed in such a way that, as far as possible, there are equal number of voters In each constituency. Once established, no major changes can be made for about eight to ten years.

At present, the Federation of Malaya is divided into 154 such constituencies whilst the states are divided into 362 smaller ones. Each constituency returns one member to either the Dewan Rakyat or the State Legislative Assembly. In case of the Local Councils, the units are smaller and are called wards. The process for election is the same in all the three.

The second function of the Commission is to prepare and maintain an up-to-date Electoral Register or Roll. The Roll was first began in 1954 and 1955. All citizens of 21 years of age and over, are called to register as voters in the constituencies in which they lived. At that time nearly 1,240,000 names were registered.

Each year the Commission carries on the work of revising these Registers. A date called the "Qualifying Day" is announced well in advance. Those who have not registered as yet or those who wish to register are requested to get this done. A short period is also given to the public during which any errors or other mistakes may be corrected. After this no further revision can take place till the next revision.

In addition to being a Federal citizen and over 21 years of age, a voter must be of sound mind. A person serving a term in prison cannot vote, whilst a person who has committed a crime in connection with elections is also barred from voting.

The third function of the Elections Commission is to arrange for the nomination of candidates for the general election or a by-election. The former takes place when Parliament is dissolved. Normally this takes place when the House of Representatives has served its elected term of office. A by-election takes place when a seat is declared vacant due to the death or resignation of a member.

When this happens, the Commission issues a Writ of Election to the Returning Officer of the constituency. Normally, the Returning Officer is the District Officer or the Chairman of the Local Council. The Writ requests the Returning Officer to take charge and organize the coming election. This must be done within sixty days of the vacancy or dissolution.

The Returning Officer now has two tasks facing him — nomination and polling. Having got the necessary qualifications, the candidate must now be nominated. This means that he must have a proposer, a seconder and four other persons to support him from his own constituency. But it is not necessary that a candidate must also be from that constituency. In other words, a candidate can stand for election in any state provided he has the qualifications and the six supporters in the constituency in which he wishes to contest the election.

Nomination papers must be received by the Returning Officer on a specified date, that is, ten days after the receipt of the Writ. These nominations can only be received between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and each must be handed in together with a receipt. After this the Returning Officer satisfies himself that the candidate have fulfilled all the requirements. Having done this he then invites any objections to any of the nominated candidates.

Once these are settled, the Returning Officer then goes on to the next step. This is to get ready for the election itself. If there is only one candidate, then he is uncontested and returned to his seat in the House. If there are more than one candidate, then the voters will have to select their candidate on polling day. And this brings us to the fourth function of the Elections Commission.

Polling Day is the day on which voters will cast their votes and choose their representative. It must be fixed between three and eight weeks after Nomination Day. During this period, the various parties will start canvassing for votes. This is quite a common sight in Malaysia during election time.

Each polling station is under the charge of a Presiding Officer. There are a few things that the Presiding Officer must always adhere to. The first is that there is absolute secrecy in the voting. He must also make sure that nobody cheats during polls, like filling in fictitious votes. It is to avoid this that the Electoral Rolls are opened to the public during the registration period.

The Presiding Officer needs a good number of people to help him on Polling Day. So he gets government servants to help him. At the same time, sites are also fixed as polling stations. All the necessary equipment is to be ready, which includes booths, tables, pencils, ballot-boxes and the like.

The next task of the Presiding Officer is to lock and seal the ballot-boxes. He does this publicly so that those present can see that nothing unfair has been done. The ballot-box is then put in a place where everydoby can see it. Polling then begins.

The first thing that each voter does on entering the polling station is that he establishes his or her identity and checks the entry in the Electoral Roll. He then gets the ballot paper and a mark is made on the roll to show that this is done. We may mention here that these ballot papers are printed with greatest care to make sure that there is no cheating. The ballot paper is counterfoil and the Electoral Roll number of the voter is written on the counterfoil.

The voter then puts his "X" against the name or symbol of the candidate he wants to vote for, folds the paper and drops in into the ballot-box. He must not write anything else on the ballot paper or his vote will be disqualified. A blind or crippled voter gets the help of the Presiding Officer to mark his ballot paper. This is done in absolute secrecy.

There are cases of people who cannot cast their votes in person because of duty. Members of the Armed Forces, Police and other such persons make up this list. In such cases, the votes are sent by post to the Returning Officer. It may also happen that a voter comes to the polling station and finds that a mark has been made against his name, which shows that he has already voted. It is possible that a genuine error has been made in this case. The Presiding Officer then issues a coloured ballot paper to the voter and he uses this to cast his vote. The Presiding Officer has to keep these separately and keep a list of these. It is clear that every effort is made to ascertain that an election is a just and honest one.

The Presiding Office closes polling at the appointed time. He then seals the ballot- box and other documents in front of all those present. These are the Electoral Roll, counterfoils, spoilt ballot papers or tendered votes (if any) and the coloured ballot papers. He then writes out a report and counts the number of ballot papers issued to him. Having done this, the Presiding Officer, with the help of a police escort, takes all the above to the Returning Officer.

THE COUNT

At the place of count, the Returning Officer receives the sealed ballot-boxes and the documents. Each box is opened in front of all present and the papers in it are counted. These are then checked with the statement made by the Presiding Officer. If more ballot papers are found in any box, then a thorough check is made and the false papers taken out. The false papers are later sent to the Elections Commission. When all the boxes have been brought in and their contents checked, they are then mixed together in a heap. Any postal votes are also added, and counting begins.

Tendered votes are not counted but kept aside. These will be examined only if there is any election petition. If a paper is marked in such a way as to show doubt in mind of the voter, then the Returning Officer rejects the vote. Apart from these, however, counting continues and when completed, the Returning Officer announces the name of the winning candidate.

All candidates have to deposit a fixed sum of money on Nomination Day. The Returning Officer now refunds this money to the winner and all the other candidates who have secured at least 1/8 of the total number of votes. Those who get less than this number of votes get their deposit forfeited.

The last duty of the Returning Officer is to collect all ballot papers, counterfoils and marked Electoral Rolls, and to put these into a container and seal it. This container is kept under lock and key for six months. After this, the Returning Officer notifies the political parties of the specific day when the container will be destroyed. The sealed container is then burned. This ensures maximum secrecy in voting.

The only person who can order the container to be opened is the Election Judge. This he does when there is an election petition. This petition can be made by a voter or candidate if he feels that, something had not been fairly carried out. He thus challenges the elections. When this is done, the Chief Justice appoints a Judge from the Supreme Court to look into the petition. Petitions can also be made if a candidate or his supporters have acted improperly during the elections. In all these matters, the decision of the Election Judge is final.

In conclusion, we see that an election is a slow process with many security measures taken to ensure that it is legal. This process has been tried for decades all over the world, and every attempt is made to give the voter complete freedom in casting his vote. This is the basic principle on which Parliamentary democracy is built.