This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 29, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 is ready to work together with the Election Commission (EC) to have free and fair elections, said its chairman Maria Chin Abdullah.

“We have a lot of proposals for the EC to introduce the much-awaited reforms,” she said in response to newly appointed chief Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah, who plans to meet her soon.

Speaking at his maiden press conference in Putrajaya yesterday, Mohd Hashim reportedly said he intends to discuss all concerns which had been previously raised by Bersih.

“I have discussed [and agreed] to pay a courtesy visit in order to discuss all matters which had been raised,” he said.

Maria said Bersih welcomes Hashim’s gesture of working to improve the electoral system.

Last week, following the announcement of Mohd Hashim taking over from Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof, Maria said the new EC chairman has to win back public confidence due to the organisation’s poor reputation.

She said the EC should clean up the voters’ roll in Sarawak before the state polls this year as 38% of those registered are without full addresses.

“How are the candidates going to reach them if the address is incomplete?” she said.

She said the EC has yet to publish all the polling stations in Sarawak and inform voters who are affected by the redrawing of boundaries that saw state seats raised from 71 to 82.

She said the last time Abdul Aziz invited Bersih for consultation and exchange of views was in 2009.

Bersih organised two rallies to demand electoral reforms in 2011 and 2012.

In 2013, it also commissioned a people’s tribunal to enquire if the 13th general election was conducted in accordance with the law.

A five-man panel in their report pointed out several shortcomings for the EC to rectify. — The Malaysian Insider