KUALA LUMPUR – The high cost and tedious mechanism are obstacles in the efforts to introduce recall elections in Malaysia, according to election watchdogs.
Engage chairman Thomas Fann said the Election Commission would have to bear the cost of having a recall election and a by-election should the recall petition gain the much-needed voter signatures.
However, the activist also told Scoop that the cost could be reduced if the polls could be done online over a specified period.
Bersih chairman Faisal Abdul Aziz told Scoop that apart from the huge cost of having recall elections, introducing such a mechanism might exacerbate political fatigue among voters since the country “is in a phase where a lot of elections are taking place at the moment”.
Danesh Prakash Chacko of Tindak Malaysia said a recall election would be a multi-stage process and voters would prefer it to be expedited – especially the petition submission – which could defeat the purpose of having the voters determine whether to have a recall.
“Recall elections will be subject to many campaigns for and against the candidate, and may have poor turnout,” the group’s director said.
Lack of political will
Additionally, Fann said the biggest challenge to any enactment to plug the loopholes in anti-hopping laws, like having a recall election, would be the lack of political will.
“But the lawmakers should also know that these same loopholes can also be used by the opposition to topple them through defections.”
The activists were responding to Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, who suggested that recall elections be introduced if the government did not amend the anti-hopping law to ensure that legislative seats would be vacated if the elected representative pledged support for parties other than their own.
Mohamad said recall elections could be held when MPs or assemblymen were not aligned with the party on whose ticket they had been elected.
He suggested that voters in that area could hold a referendum on recalling the MP, and if they received more than 50% support, the seat would have to be vacated and an election held again.
Fann said Mohamad’s suggestion was an acknowledgement by the Umno leader that the anti-hopping law, in its current form, was inadequate to curb the problem of party-hopping by elected representatives.
“The decision of both the Dewan Rakyat and Selangor speakers to not declare vacancies for the six Bersatu MPs and an assemblyman has weakened the anti-hopping laws and went against the spirit and intent of these legal amendments.”
‘Let’s improve the anti-hopping law’
Faisal viewed that efforts should be placed on improving the existing anti-hopping law. The law, he said, faced issues of interpretation, especially concerning Article 49 of the Federal Constitution.
The law, which came into force in 2022, mandates that an MP must relinquish their seat if they resign from their political party and become independent. However, it allows MPs to retain their seats if they are dismissed from their party. The provision also gives the speaker the power to determine seat vacancies.
“By right, the provision should be improved following engagement done with various parties such as NGOs.”
Previously, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government was open to discussions on legal amendments to address any loopholes in the existing anti-party hopping law.
Despite his call for improving the law, Faisal said a specific law on recall elections could be considered as an alternative that would give the platform to the public to choose new elected representatives in the event of defections made by the current representatives.
Danesh meanwhile said the recall mechanism could also provide an avenue for voters to hold underperforming elected representatives accountable. – July 19, 2024
