EC's silence on discrepancies irks voters

KUALA LUMPUR: With less than two days before the 14th General Elections (GE14), the Election Commission (EC) is keeping mum about various concerns, suspicions and complaints raised by voters nationwide.
This is especially with regards to overseas voters, many of whom had expressed alarm after not having received their ballot papers on time, while others faced problems with inconsistencies with the Returning Officers' guidelines on postal voting.
However, despite coming under fire from various quarters, EC chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah has refused to comment on issues of alleged continued discrepancies in the run-up to May 9.
The media, as with social media users, both had raised various complaints and concerns which requires prompt action by the EC.
Some of these include confusion as to how residents with the same address, are forced to vote in different polling stations, and worst, having to vote in differing parliamentary constituencies.
A voter complained that the postal vote return envelopes had no address stamped on them, hence voters do not know where to send their ballots to.
Deceased voters are still listed on the electoral roll, and vote-rigging allegations are being raised.
A police officer had also lodged a police report, after finding out that someone had voted under his name, during the early voting two days ago.
The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) said it has submitted 80 complaints questioning the integrity of the electoral roll last month. That too might just be shelved as another complaint to the EC.
For now, completely ignoring all media queries seems to be the only consistent practice by the EC and its officials.
Mohd Hashim prefers to release statements that barely answer all concerns and queries raised.
He had even refused to take questions at a press conference when announcing the nomination and polling days.
Mohd Hashim's deafening silence on the issues only serves to further compound the public's fears, that there is manipulation of the voting process. Can we blame them? When those appointed to clarify key issues prefer to turn a deaf ear instead, what other reliable sources are there? Sebenarnya.my?
The entire process of the much awaited 14th general elections has been notoriously marred with ambiguity right from the pre-election period, the controversial redelineation process and its hurried passing in the Dewan Rakyat, to the announcement of polling day, and the EC's refusal to allow Human Rights Comission (Suhakam) from acting as one of the election watchdogs while reportedly inviting 14 countries as foreign observers. Seven countries, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, have agreed to send representatives.
The EC has done itself no favour, apart from opening doors for more speculations, further encouraging the already eroding confidence people have on the so-called independent agency.