PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Ramlan Ibrahim, one of the new members of the Election Commission (EC), believes his “overseas experience” will come in handy in helping out the Election Commission’s reform process.
The former secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry said he had followed and observed many elections in other nations while he was at Wisma Putra and had also written reports of the political development and leadership changes in other countries.
“I used to carry out analyses of the electoral systems of other nations, so I think that I will be relevant to the EC and bring the experience that I had in Wisma Putra,“ he said when met at the EC headquarters here today after reporting for duty with two other new EC members namely Datuk Chin Phaik Yoong and Zoe Randhawa.
Chin, the former director-general of the Manpower Department, said the views and feedback of the public would be taken into account in making reforms to the electoral process.
Randhawa meanwhile said she planned to bring the long awaited reforms to the EC and to make the commission more transparent.
EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said the new EC deputy chairman Associate Professor Dr Azmi Sharom and another commission member Associate Professor Dr Faisal S. Hazis, were unable to report today because they needed to settle matters at their respective organisations.
“I am confident that the team with me today is strong with quality and integrity and will help build the EC into an independent, transparent, clean, fair and respected institution,“ he said.
On the appointment of another EC member, Azhar said it would be announced later.
Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Bakar, today announced the appointment of Azmi, a law lecturer at Universiti Malaya as the new EC deputy chairman, and four new members of the commission
Tan Sri Othman Mahmood (then EC deputy chairman) together with five other members of the commission decided to cut short their terms of service effective Jan 1.
They were Datuk Md Yusop Mansur, Datuk Abdul Aziz Khalidin, Datuk Sulaiman Narawi, Datuk Leo Chong Cheong and Datuk Bala Singam Karupiah. — Bernama
