Panel to make stand on RCI

KOTA KINABALU, November 17, 2011 (Daily Express) -- The Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms will make a resolution on the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) as it has been the central issue raised the past two days during its public hearings here.

Chairman Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said the panel members of the committee would discuss and compile all the feedback and proposals from groups and individuals in the public hearing before presenting a preliminary report to the Parliament.

Among others, he said the committee would be making its stand on the RCI even though it was not included in the Select Committee's terms and reference.

Speaking after the public hearing ended at the Federal Administrative Complex, Saturday, Dr Maximus said the RCI was related to the electoral process since among the reasons for the establishment of the RCI was to investigate the electoral rolls as well as citizenship.

He said the Select Committee would also be making a stand on matters including the automatic registration of voters because based on feedback in Sabah there is no objection to the move as long as the electoral rolls have been cleaned up.

Nonetheless, he agreed with Umno Youth from Papar division that the RCI was not the only solution but there are other alternatives.

During the two-day public hearing here, Dr Maximus who is also Science, Technology and Innovation Minister said 24 groups and individuals came to forward their proposals and feedback on improving the electoral process in the country.

"There's a wide diversity of ideas on how to improve the electoral system," he said, adding there was also proposal on improving transparency at the polling centres.

He said there was also a call for a re-registration of the voters in Sabah since there is a need to clean up the Electoral Roll.

He added that some of the people were raising similar issues but they decided to speak to the Select Committee on it as they felt that it was too important.

The preliminary report would be tabled before the Parliament session for this year ends on Dec 1.

Select Committee panel member, MP for Kuala Krai, Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli said the RCI could entangle the mess caused by the problems of phantom voters and illegal immigrants in Sabah.

"The whole issue came into the fore during the Likas Election Petition trial in 1999 whereby there were some proof brought to the Court, which the Judge agreed that there were phantom voters in the electoral rolls," he said.

Dr Maximus said the Election Commission (EC) had also been taking steps to clean up the electoral rolls such as by displaying the 42,000 doubtful names in the rolls for verification.