The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) will be having an election to determine the new leadership line up for the term 2023-2025. As the name suggests, BERSIH is a coalition of 58 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and each NGO is eligible to nominate, vote and have a say in the coalition’s direction and vision.
Since the term of the current Steering Committee from 2020 – 2022/2023 (which was extended due to the general and state elections in the past year) has come to an end, an election will be held to elect a new team of Steering Committee of BERSIH for the term of 2023 – 2025.
To walk the talk on election transparency and level playing field, BERSIH provides a fair chance to all candidates to share and present their vision to the electorate (our endorsing NGOs) as well as providing two weeks of campaign period, starting today *(24 October)*, and three days of polling to facilitate maximum access and participation, especially for our NGOs based in Sabah and Sarawak.
The election will be held online from 7 to 9 November 2023. Polling closes at 5PM and results will be announced on the same day (November 9).
Three respected activists – Yap Swee Seng, Anne Lasimbang, and Stanley Yong – have been appointed to form an independent Election Committee that runs the election, with technical assistance provided by the BERSIH secretariat.
There will be nine (9) positions open for election, namely Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Vice-Chair for Sarawak, Vice-Chair for Sabah, Vice Chair for Peninsula, Treasurer and three committee members. Since nomination closed at 5PM yesterday evening, below are the accepted nominations for the various positions.
Four of the six top offices are won without contest by their sole nominees, ie, Chairperson by Thomas Fann (nominated by ENGAGE); Regional Vice Chair (Peninsula) by Azmil Mohd Tayeb (nominated by Aliran and ENGAGE); Regional Vice Chair (Sarawak) by Ann Teo (nominated by ROSE Sarawak) and Regional Vice Chair (Sabah) by Fiqah Roslan (nominated by Pacos Trust).
Straight fight occurs for Deputy Chair between Ngeow Chow Ying (nominated by ENGAGE) and Wong Yan Ke (nominated by SUARAM) and for Treasurer between Tan Hui Chun (nominated by ENGAGE)and Sadina Suffian (nominated by EMPOWER).
The three positions for committee members without portfolios are contested by seven nominees. The nominees include Hasbullah bin Hj Ashari (nominated by IKRAM), Aira Nur Ariana Azhari (nominated by ENGAGE), Benedict Weerasena (nominated by ENGAGE); Alex Johnson (nominated by EMPOWER), Haridas S. Krishnan Nair (nominated by Aliran) and Beverly Joeman (nominated by Pacos Trust).
Released by:
The Election Committee of BERSIH