Electoral Reforms During the Pakatan Harapan Government

• Main Authors: Mohd. Zain, Zawiyah, Ahmad, Zalinah, Omar, Salmah, Ajis, Mohd Na'eim, Othman, Zaheruddin
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: JC Political theory
• Online Access: https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/31496/1/SSRN2024_01_11.pdf; https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/31496/; https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4781210

Elections are a vital aspect of a democratic political system. This is because the people will determine the ruling government through their votes in the election. In Malaysia, the election issue becomes a political issue that attracted the serious attention of various parties because they are unsatisfied with the election management. For example, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (BERSIH), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and political parties often demand that the government pay attention to fair and clean elections. As a result, some changes were made in the voting process. For example, the use of permanent ink during voting. However, many reforms still need to be done in line with the recommendations of BERSIH and NGOs. The reform was given special attention after the formation of the new government, which is Pakatan Harapan, in May 2018. Thus, this article aims to analyze the electoral reforms under the Pakatan Harapan government (2018-2020). The analysis used qualitative methods, namely document analysis and interviews. This article argues that Pakatan Harapan focuses mainly on the electoral reform agenda. Among the things that the Pakatan Harapan government did immediately after forming the government was to appoint a Chairman of the Election Commission who was not a civil servant, propose an 18-year voting age in Parliament and establish a Special Committee for Reform of the Electoral Law and Systems. This shows that throughout the 22 months of Pakatan Harapan's rule, they are committed to electoral reform, which has had a positive impact on the democratic system in Malaysia