Bersih 2.0 worries govt will not get strong mandate
SHAH ALAM - Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) disagrees if the15th General Election (GE15) is held during the monsoon season due to concerns that the government would not get a strong mandate.
Its chairman Thomas Fann said the election needed to be held when majority of the voters could go out and vote.
"The important thing now is that we want an election that successfully brings a high percentage voter turnout.
"This is because the main challenges now are the Undi18 and the automatic voter registration that may cause the percentage of voter turnout to be low.
"It does not matter when GE15 will be held, it must be suitable so that many would be able to go out to cast their votes," he told Sinar Harian on Monday.
Fann said a strong government could not be formed if the percentage of voter turnout was low.
"If an area or state faced floods, surely many would be unable to go out to vote and this would weaken the democracy in the country.
"Even if the government wins GE15 with a low percentage of votes, it would mean that the mandate was low thus causing the political instability in the country to continue," he said.
Fann said the weak mandate would be difficult for the government in implementing policies that were unpopular but important for the people.
"The policies might not be supported by the majority of the MPs. So, the government would not be able to make changes that the country needs," he said.
Fann said Bersih 2.0 was of the view that the appropriate time to hold GE15 was after the Parliament's term ends, next year.
He said within the remaining months, the government needed to focus on reforms of Parliament and laws under the Transformation and Political Stability Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
"The reforms include the political funding law that would be brought to Parliament which would improve our political system," he said.
