KUALA LUMPUR: The Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) said Putrajaya will implement all 49 of its recommendations on improving the electoral system, which it had submitted to the prime minister in August.
ERC chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said the proposals would be implemented based on priority and over a period of time.
“I feel that the government seems to be stable now and was informed that Senior Minister Azmin Ali had been appointed to chair a Cabinet committee on the electoral process.
“They will conduct an in-depth study on the ERC recommendations that can be implemented immediately,” he said at a press conference on civic education and voters yesterday.
The former Election Commission chairman said that out of the 49 proposals, 32 needed to be implemented within three years.
According to Rashid. the government needed time to carry out all of the reforms and estimated that it would take 10 years to complete the reform process.
“Among the reforms that the government and the EC should pay attention to include the rules that a caretaker government should abide by in the run-up to the polls,” he said, adding that no such rules are in place at the moment.
“A caretaker government cannot operate normally (after Parliament or state legislative assembly is dissolved) as it is no longer in power. So certain rules must be in place.”
Last week, de-facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan told the Dewan Rakyat that a special committee was formed to review the findings of a study by the ERC and that the public will be duly informed.
The ERC was set up under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in August 2018 to study ways to improve the electoral system which had been heavily criticised for a perceived lack of independence under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.