Gabungan Pilihanraya Bersih dan Adil / Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections

PRESS RELEASE
22 October 2007

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) will hold a mass rally on 10 November (Saturday), at 3 pm at Dataran Merdeka to press for electoral reform. A memorandum will subsequently be submitted to His Majesty Yang Dipertuan Agong.

This latest citizen action organized by BERSIH demonstrates the growing public demand for the four immediate actions necessary to reform our flawed electoral process:
(a) a thorough cleanup of the electoral roll;
(b) the user of indelible ink to prevent multiple voting;
(c) the abolition of postal voting for military and police personnel;
(d) fair access to the mass media for all parties.

The memorandum to be submitted to HM Yang DiPertuan Agong will outline both the immediate and long-term reforms needed in the Malaysian election process including the adherence of a “one-person, one-vote” principle.

BERSIH has chosen yellow – the colour for citizen actions worldwide as well as the colour for the press freedom movement (yellow ribbon) in Malaysia – as the theme colour for this rally. BERSIH encourages all Malaysians to indicate their support and solidarity by wearing yellow T-shirts, yellow armbands or yellow ribbons on the day of the rally.

Clean, free and fair elections are fundamental to democracy. Flawed elections frustrate the functioning of democracy, resulting in corruption and incompetence of the government of the day. The losers are none other than the people.

To date however, the Government and Election Commission have ignored all of BERSIH’s demands apart from the use of indelible ink in the upcoming general election.

For this reason, BERSIH (a coalition supported by 64 organisations) has decided to call for a mass public protest and urges all concerned citizens to join us at Dataran Merdeka on 10 November 2007. The rally will be attended by leaders and representatives of civil society groups and political parties.