Findings of the People's Tribunal on Malaysia's 13Th General Elections
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Findings of the People's Tribunal on Malaysia's 13th General Elections 25 March 2014 Report of the People’s Tribunal on the 13th General Elections Volume 1 “Elections are the cornerstone of representative democracy. Through elections, governments obtain their democratic mandate and are held accountable for their performance in office. Flawed elections deprive people of their voice in governance and undermine sustainable democratic development.” – International IDEA Members of the Tribunal and the Organising Committee The People’s Tribunal on Malaysia’s 13 th General Elections Members of the Tribunal Professor Yash Pal Ghai, Kenyan, Chair of Tribunal, expert in constitutional law and human rights, Emeritus Professor of Public Law, University of Hong Kong. Chair of the Kenya Constitution Review Commission and Chair of the National Constitutional Conference (2000-2004). Professor Ramlan Surbakti, Indonesian, Professor of Comparative Politics at Airlangga University, Surabaya. Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Election Commission (2001-5), Acting Chair (2005-7). Senior Adviser on Elections in the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia since 2008. Datuk Azzat bin Kamaludin, Malaysian, Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. Former Administrative and Diplomatic Officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malaysia. Dr. Mavis Puthucheary, Malaysian, former Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. Co-editor of a book entitled Elections and Democracy in Malaysia. Rev Dr. Hermen Shastri, Malaysian, Methodist Minister, General Secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM). Member of the Executive Committee of Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism. Members of the Organising Committee Ivy Josiah, Executive Director of Women’s Aid Organisation Meera Samanther, President of the Association of Women Lawyers Jerald Joseph, Member, Board of Director of Pusat KOMAS Irene Fernandez, Executive Director of Tenaganita On behalf of the 84 endorsing NGOs of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (BERSIH 2.0) The Steering Committee of BERSIH 2.0 comprises: Maria Chin Abdullah (Chairperson), Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa (Deputy Chairperson), Masjaliza Hamzah (Treasurer), Farhana Abdul Halim, New Sin Yew, Jannie Lasimbang (Sabah Vice-chair), Ahmad b. Awang Ali (Sarawak Vice-chair), Abd Halim b. Wan Ismail (East Peninsula Vice-chair), Thomas Fann (South Peninsula Vice-chair), Simon Lee Ying Wai (Central Peninsula Vice-chair) and Dato’ Dr Toh Kin Woon (North Peninsula Vice- chair). The Tribunal is grateful to Jill Cottrell for assistance with the preparation of this Report. It is also grateful to Ding Jo Ann, Rupa Menon and Sunita Zechariah for their research assistance. 1 Findings of the People's Tribunal on GE13 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations............................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 1: Background to the People’s Tribunal on GE13 .............................................. 7 Nature of the Tribunal....................................................................................................... 7 Members of the Tribunal................................................................................................... 8 Mandate of the Tribunal .................................................................................................... 9 Proceedings of the Tribunal............................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Elections, Electoral Systems and Electoral Governance ............................... 12 The purpose of elections.................................................................................................. 14 Ensuring a Representative Parliament.............................................................................. 14 Making elections accessible and meaningful ................................................................... 14 Norms and Standards for Fair and Free Elections ............................................................ 15 International law and “soft law” .................................................................................. 16 Guidelines, standards etc. ............................................................................................ 17 The people: OPOVOV (One person, one vote, one value) ............................................ 19 The choice ................................................................................................................... 20 Representatives ........................................................................................................... 21 Supporting mechanisms and procedures ...................................................................... 21 Chapter 3: GE13 ............................................................................................................... 24 Past elections................................................................................................................... 24 The constitutional and legal framework........................................................................... 25 The 2013 Elections.......................................................................................................... 26 The evidence before the Tribunal .................................................................................... 28 The right to vote.............................................................................................................. 28 Findings and Observations on Right to Vote ................................................................ 29 The integrity of the Register of Electors .......................................................................... 29 Comprehensiveness ..................................................................................................... 30 Non-citizens registered.................................................................................................... 31 Not registered in the right constituency ....................................................................... 32 Registered though not apparently having applied ........................................................ 33 Removed from the roll ................................................................................................. 33 Findings and Observations on the Electoral Roll ......................................................... 33 Are those registered able to vote? .................................................................................... 34 Availability ...................................................................................................................... 34 Ensuring that those not entitled to vote do not do so ........................................................ 35 Failure to produce proper identification ...................................................................... 35 Non-indelible ink ............................................................................................................. 36 Advance and postal voting ............................................................................................... 38 Findings and Observations on whether only those entitled to vote were able to vote and not others .................................................................................................................... 39 The principle of “one person, one vote and one value” (OPOVOV)................................. 39 Findings and Observations on boundary drawing ........................................................ 42 How far is the ballot genuinely secret? ............................................................................ 43 Freedom to organise and campaign.................................................................................. 44 Organising .................................................................................................................. 44 Are candidates and parties able to campaign freely?................................................... 45 Findings and Observations on freedom to organise and campaign .............................. 46 Does voting itself take place in an atmosphere where the voters can feel free to exercise their choice?.................................................................................................................... 46 3 Manipulation of ethnic identities and creation of ethnic hostility ................................. 47 Unfair campaigning .................................................................................................... 48 Restrictions on campaigning around election day ........................................................ 48 Findings and Observations on the free atmosphere for voting ...................................... 48 The voters free choice unaffected by promises and threat of personal benefit or loss ....... 48 Findings and observations on bribery and related matters ........................................... 50 Is there a “level playing field”, in the sense that as far as possible “government” candidates and others compete equally without the former having unfair advantages? ...................... 51 A caretaker government? ............................................................................................. 51 Undue Influence: Promises – and threats ...................................................................