ELECTION COMMISSION

The Election Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia) which we called
SPR is a commission set up for the purpose of regulating and
conducting elections in Malaysia. The Election Commission falls under the purview of
the Prime Minister's Department.
FUNCTION
Apart from regulating elections, the EC's duties include reviewing the boundaries of
parliamentary and state constituencies, holding by-elections and carrying out registration
exercises. It also collects information on newly developed areas to ensure a fair representation of
voters in each constituency, promotes awareness on how important it is to vote and revises the
electoral roll by deleting the names of those who are dead or have been disqualified. On polling
day, EC members and officers will be stationed at polling centres nationwide to oversee the
process.
ELECTION PROCESS
Elections are supervised by a seven-member politically neutral Election Commission. Its
members are appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong following the advice of the Prime
Minister.
There are six steps in the conduct of a general election or a by-election. These are, the
issuance of writ, nomination, election campaign, voting, counting of votes and the
announcement of the results.
(i) Issuance of Writ
Upon the dissolution of the Parliament or a State Legislative Assembly or in the event of a
casual vacancy, the EC will issue a writ to the Returning Officer. The writ gives the Returning
Officer the power to conduct the election. Simultaneously, a notice of election will be
gazetted and notices will be posted at convenient places for public view. The notice will
contain the date of nomination and the dates of polling (advance voting for absent voters
and polling day for ordinary voters).
(ii) Nomination
On nomination day, the Returning Officer for the constituency will receive the nomination
forms from the candidate, proposer and seconder or from any one or two of them between
9.00 am and 10.00 am. The nomination forms must be accompanied by a statutory
declaration (Form 5 for candidates for the House of Representatives and Form 5A for
candidates for the State Legislative Assembly) as well as the election deposit (RM 10,000 for
a Parliamentary seat and RM 5,000 for a State Legislative Assembly seat). Forms 5 and 5A
does not require any stamps.



The Returning Officer, assisted by Assistant Returning Officers, will scrutinize the
nomination papers to ensure that the forms are complete and that the candidates are
qualified to stand for elections. For example, undischarged bankrupts and those who were
candidates or their agents in the last election had failed to submit their election expenses
returns are automatically disqualified. After making all the necessary checks, the RO will
announce the names of candidates and their parties contesting the election the
Parliamentary and State constituencies. If only one candidate is qualified to stand for
election in a constituency, the Returning Officer will announce him to have won the election
without contest.
(iii) Election Campaign
Immediately after the announcement by the Returning Officer that there will be a contest in a
constituency, the candidates and their representative can start their campaigning. These
could include the affixing of posters, talks, distribution of pamphlets, and campaigning from
house to house. All campaign activities should stop at midnight or 12.00 pm a day before
polling.
Candidates are required to pay RM 5,000 as campaign materials deposit for Parliamentary
seats and RM 3,000 for state seats. These deposits will be returned to the candidate or his
agent if all campaign materials are cleared within 14 days of polling. If the parties fail to do
so, the authorities will use the deposit to clean up the city. Any balance from the clean-up
operations will be returned to the party concerned. Candidates and parties intending to
conduct public talks as part of their campaigning activities must obtain permits from the local
police authorities.
(iv) Polling
On polling day, electors who have their names listed on the electoral roll will go out to cast
their votes at the specified polling centers. Generally the EC keeps the polling centres open
from 8 am to 5 pm throughout the country. However, there are polling centres which are
opened for a shorter duration for safety reasons and transportation difficulties, especially in
Sabah and Sarawak.
A polling centre may have one or more polling stations. A Presiding Officer is in charge of
each polling station and has 2 to 4 polling clerks.
Absent voters from the Armed Forces and their wives, the Police Field Force and their
spouses and members of the Royal Malaysian Police by default are advance voters and
must cast their votes not less than three days in advance of polling day. Those unable to
cast their votes in advance must apply to the Returning Officer of the constituency that they
are to vote to cast their votes by post. However, all the marked postal ballot papers must
reach the Office of the Returning Officer at 5.00 pm on polling day.



(v) Counting Votes
Once polling closes, the Presiding Officer, assisted by the Counting Clerks will start counting
the ballot papers. The Presiding Officer will first complete Form 13, a statement on the
number of ballot papers issued to the Presiding Officer before the start of polling, the number
of ballot papers issued to the voters, the number of spoilt ballot papers and the number of
ballot papers remaining with the Presiding Officer at the close of polling. The totals must
tally. Following this, the Presiding Officer and the Counting Clerks will first count the number
of ballot papers in the ballot box. They keep ballot papers with markings that are ambiguous
aside. They sort the remaining ballot papers by candidates. They then decide which of the
ballot papers where the markings are not clear are to be accepted (or rejected) and to which
candidates the accepted ballot papers should be assigned before counting the number of
ballot papers assigned to each candidate. The Presiding Officer then completes Form 14
that records the number of votes obtained by each candidate and the number of spoilt votes.
The difference between the number of ballot papers in the box and the number issued as per
Form 13 will constitute missing ballot papers (probably taken away by the voter). Officers
and clerks counting postal ballot papers will complete Form 15. The counting of ballot papers
from advance voting will begin at 5.00 pm as well on polling day and they too will complete
Form 14. All Forms 14 and 15 will be brought to the Official Vote Tallying Centre where the
Returning Officer will check them individually and announce the results for each polling
station. The Returning Officer will match the numbers in Form 14 with that in Form 13 in
case he suspects some arithmetical errors.
The Returning Officer will add the numbers from all Forms 14 and 15 to obtain the number of
votes obtained by each candidate as well as the number of rejected votes.
(vi) Announcement of Election Results
The Returning Officer for each constituency will declare the candidate who secures a simple
majority as the winner and confirm him as the elected representative for the constituency
concerned. The decision of the Returning Officer is final. Any party who is dissatisfied with
the outcome of the election may submit an election petition to the Election Court.