PETALING JAYA: Ministries must not be allowed to intervene in the conduct of elections as it is the responsibility of the Election Commission (EC) to do so, Bersih 2.0 chairman Thomas Fann said.
He said the involvement of ministries in elections, on the grounds of the Covid-19 epidemic, can lead to partiality.
“With ministries like the Health Ministry having a bigger say in elections nowadays, there can be a temptation to be biased,” he was quoted saying by The Malaysian Insight.
He added this was because ministers were part of a political party, and this would allow them to take sides.
According to him, it can also be politically motivated if ministries interfered in the polls.
“The fact that on polling day, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin himself called upon people to vote for Barisan Nasional (BN). This showed a conflict of interest as he was the one in charge of setting the standard operating procedure for the polls,“ he said.
The Malacca elections were conducted under stringent Covid-19 regulations set by MOH and the National Security Council.
