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DAP to start preparing for impeachment proceedings against the Election Commission Chairman Rashid if he does not resign by end of the month to take responsibility for the most chaotic and inefficient conduct of a general election in 46 years Media Conference Statement (3) by Lim Kit Siang (Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): DAP will start preparing for impeachment proceedings against the Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman if he does not resign by the end of the month to take responsibility for the most chaotic and inefficient conduct of a general election in 46 years. As all political parties and candidates, both Barisan Nasional and the opposition, had condemned the Election Commission for the outrageous polling day mess-up, I hope that MPs regardless of political party, will support such an impeachment proceeding in the new Parliament when such a motion is moved. A day before the polling day for the 2004 general election, I had phoned and spoken to Rashid, suggesting that the Election Commission should postpone the polling by five to seven days as it is likely to be the most chaotic and inefficient general election in history because of the many problems faced by voters to exercise their constitutional right to vote, not knowing whether their name was on the electoral roll and which polling station to cast their vote. If Rashid had heeded my proposal to postpone the polling day by five to seven days so that the Election Commission was really ready to conduct an efficient and fair polling process and resolve all the technical hitches of a trouble-free and hassle-free polling, March 21, 2004 would not go down in history as the most disgraceful election conducted in Malaysian history. Rashid said that he is prepared to resign if the foul-up on polling day are traced back to him and that he himself did not know its cause. Whether Rashid is aware of the cause of the foul-up on polling day or not, he must accept responsibility for it as Election Commission Chairman and resign for the outrageous mess on polling day. The extension of the voting hours from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on polling day, without notice and in circumstances where opposition candidates and parties were unaware of the extension was most improper, irregular and arbitrary, destroying the legitimacy of the election results in Selangor. DAP calls for fresh elections to be held for all parliamentary and state assembly seats in Selangor. * Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman |