The Malaysian Insight

PUTRAJAYA needs to set up a special body to monitor all constitutional institutions to prevent mockery of the justice system and to strengthen the democratic process, said Election Commission (EC) chairman Azhar Azizan Harun.

This body, said Azhar, is needed as currently the EC has no institution to adjudicate their actions or provide check and balance.

“I propose a robust check and balance institution in order to monitor constitutional institutions.

“With regards to the EC, we don’t have a check and balance institution,” he said at a round table discussion at LawAsia’s Inaugural Constitutional and Rule of Law Conference in Petaling Jaya today.

He gave the example of the redelineation exercise carried out by the EC where checks were sorely missing.

“For redelineation, the EC will make the first recommendation. Then it will hear objections on its own actions before adjudicating that objection.”

He said this process will repeat twice before it is submitted for the prime minister’s approval.

“How can we adjudicate our own actions?

“If that isn’t a mockery of the principle of natural justice, I don’t know what is,” he said in his opening remarks.”

He proposed that this check and balance institution be made up of legal experts, people of high integrity and retired judges to adjudicate for the EC and other constitutional institutions.

He also proposed the setting up of an audit committee for every constitutional institution to monitor standards and performance.

He said the Australian Election Commission has an auditor to monitor these things.

“They will assess the performance and come up with recommendations. The EC and other institutions rarely disagree with the auditor’s suggestions.”

Azhar also proposed other mechanisms for constitutional institutions such as a code of conduct institution.

“The EC doesn’t have that, we need enforcement.”

He proposed an assessment mechanism to assess the conduct of public officials and public institutions. – October 5, 2019.