Malaysiakini
Feb 21, 2015

Malaysia has the worst electoral boundaries in the world and among the worst set of election laws, the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) found.

This places Malaysia among countries with ‘low electoral integrity’ ranking 114 out of 127 nations surveyed along with the likes of Angola, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Egypt, EIP’s 2014 report said.

It trails far behind neighbour Indonesia, which ranks 51st for its presidential elections. The Philippines and Thailand ranks 91st and 88th place respectively.

Malaysia was dragged down by its score for voting boundaries, where it scored 28 out of 100 – the worst in the world. The average global score was 64.

International and domestic experts who responded to EIP’s survey after GE13, said Malaysia’s electoral boundaries discriminated against some parties, favoured incumbents and were not impartial.

Similarly, Malaysia was in the bottom five in electoral laws by scoring a dismal 33, far behind the global average of 64, the report found.

It was only better than Syria, Belarus, Tajikistan and Equitorial Guinea.

Repondents were asked to rate Malaysia’s laws for fairness to smaller parties, whether the laws favoured governing parties and restricted citizens’ rights.

Malaysia, however met the world average for voting process, with respondents saying there were few cases of violence during polls or fraudulent votes case, a simple voting process, and option to vote for overseas Malaysians.

All 127 countries surveyed were measured on electoral laws, electoral procedures, district boundaries, voter registration, party and candidate registration, media coverage, campaign financing, voting process, vote count, results, and election authorities.

Analysing Malaysia in greater detail, EIP’s University of Sydney researcher Max Gromping said malapportionment and “other irregularities” have been said to be the reason for BN’s victory.

“In particular, rural constituencies – traditionally strongholds of the ruling party – are advantaged compared to urban ones,” he wrote in Australia National University’s journal The New Mandala.

“Electoral reform has stalled, perhaps due to the stark polarisation of the electorate.”

The EIP is based in Harvard University and University of Sydney.