EC preparing for snap polls?

Voter registration continues as EC prepares for snap polls

The Election Commission (EC) has begun to prepare for the 13th general elections as parliament enters its fourth year of the Barisan Nasional (BN) mandate from Election 2008.

But EC deputy chairman Datuk Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said voter registration will still continue all year round with electoral rolls being gazetted every three months, dismissing speculation the commission will stop signing up voters this month.

“Usually, when we enter the fourth year after the previous general election, preparations will be made ... we make early preparations in Year 4 and use that as a sign,” Wan Ahmad told The Malaysian Insider.

He also pointed out that the three-year period for by-elections to be held under the Elections Act had passed and the EC could now prepare for the general election.

“We have done all sorts of preparations ... early preparation like logistics, determining polling centres, printing guidelines, all kinds of preparation,” said Wan Ahmad.

“Other forms of preparation like the training of workers and election officers will be done about one or two months before (the election),” he added.

The last general election, the 12th since independence in 1957, was held in March 2008 or at the end of the fourth year of that term by then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

He was succeeded in April 2009 by Datuk Seri Najib Razak, whose coalition mandate ends in April 2013. State elections must also be held between the end of April and May 2013.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim predicted recently that Najib will call general elections before August this year.

Political analysts, however, are speculating that the prime minister is likely to delay snap polls until the end of this year or early 2012 as he and his cabinet tour the country to assess conditions on the ground and also work on getting more support in states held by Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact.

The Najib administration recently embarked on its latest round of subsidy cuts on essential goods like electricity, a move that could rouse voter unhappiness. But the prime minister has also initiated various projects under his New Economic Model (NEM) with a view to making Malaysia a high-income nation by 2020.

By G Manimaran, The Malaysian Insider