LETTER | The 14th general election is already far too unfair and it is impossible at this advanced stage to conduct it “with maximum fairness” as some quarters are advocating.

Elections are not what happens at the polling booths on election day. That is only the tail-end, the last few percents of the whole election process.

All the “cleanliness” on voting day can never make the elections “fair” as it does not cleanse away all the dirtiness of the preparations for election day.

The biggest dirtiness is gerrymandering. The constitution is very clear on the number of voters in the different constituencies. It states the number “shall be approximately equal”.

By no stretch of the imagination can even two be “approximately equal” to one.

Yet the EC blatantly ignores the true meaning of “approximately” and creates some BN-friendly constituencies that have a mere 20 to 25 percent of the voters in opposition friendly constituencies.

This means the votes of four or five voters in the latter are equal to the vote of one in the former!

The EC, in reality just an agency in the PM’s department and is entrusted to safeguard the interests of the ruling BN. Its job scope is to keep shifting the goalposts so that the BN has an advantage over the opposition.

The public has seen this so clearly and even the previous chairperson of the EC had publicly declared that the re-delineations done by him were to favour one party.

General elections can never be ethical or fair until and unless election rules are made and enforced just like the rules for football, hockey, badminton, etc.

Isn’t it extremely odd that general elections being the most important “game” and it’s rules are not set down permanently as for the games of football, etc. but left to an election commission to change at its whim and fancy?

Can an EC that sits in the PM’s Department, thus being an agency in his department, be “independent” in any sense of the word?

The EC is just a front created by the ruling party to create the perception that the elections are run by an independent body.

In actual fact, the elections are being run by the government that hides behind the veil of an “independent Election Commission”.

The real chairperson of the EC is the PM himself, and the chairperson that the public is shown is merely his proxy.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.