What counts as electoral malpractice? Author: Fadiah Nadwa Fikri
Watchers of Malaysian politics know that incidents of corrupt practices at elections are extremely pervasive in Malaysia. Massive vote-buying at elections is so commonplace that it is no longer shocking news.
Cogent evidence of corrupt practices has been documented systematically by election observers. But when they are brought to the attention of both the Election Commission (EC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), they are quick to pass the buck— saying that the matter is within neither of their purviews. 1 This has led concerned civil society organisations and electoral observers to ask the question, what does the law say about whose responsibility it is for enforcing electoral laws? How can we make those involved accountable?
This report aims to address these questions by:
- analysing existing laws governing corrupt practices committed during elections, in particular the Election Offences Act 1954 (EOA) and the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 (MACC Act);
- examining the roles of the EC and the MACC under the existing laws in addressing issues related to corrupt practices committed during elections;
- identifying the enforcement body mandated to enforce the laws that criminalise corrupt practices at elections and the legal loopholes that enable these practices; and,
- identifying contextual incidences that should also be considered corrupt practices under the law
To download the full report, please click here (30 pages, 1.7mb PDF).
