EC: Swearing in lawmakers shows Pakatan hypocrisy

Election Commission deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar today called the opposition leaders hypocrites as they will be taking their oath as parliamentarians soon although they dispute the 13th general election results.

He said the opposition leaders were quick to change their stand and their actions always ran contrary to their principles.

"They won 89 (parliamentary) seats and more than two-thirds majority in three states but on the streets, they reject the general election results. Really, this is hypocrisy.

"Their principles are not the same as their actions. It seems their principle is that they cannot accept the GE13 results. But their actions (show us what)?

"Now we see that they want to take their oath (of office); they change their stance and earlier they said they only wanted to boycott the briefing (for MPs)."

Wan Ahmad said this to reporters after a luncheon talk titled 'GE13: Accept the people's decision', organised by the Special Affairs Department and Institut Perkembangan Minda (Inmind) in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said the opposition could be labelled as hypocrites also because they claimed the country's general election system to be unfair but still fielded their candidates in the recent elections.

"If they had no confidence in the general election process and regulations in the first place, that it was not transparent and there would be cheating as they claimed, they should not have troubled themselves by participating in it.

Won't entertain opposition's demands

"But they contested because they believed we were fair, that they would win, break the monopoly of the ruling government and form the government because victory was in the hands of the rakyat."

He said the opposition parties were only using the people to support their principle of not accepting the GE13 results by taking them to the streets but at the same time, admitted themselves to be elected through the general election process.

Wan Ahmad said the EC would not entertain the opposition's demands as it was not in line with the federal constitution and legal provisions.

"They demand that the EC officials resign.

"It's ridiculous because according to the constitution, this is not the way. It's also absurd to ask for elections be held again in 30 constituencies that they narrowly won.

"If they don't trust the election results, they should file petitions as provided for under Article 118 of the federal constitution.

"They also demand that the redelineation exercise be postponed but according to the constitution, it must be done after every eight years. It's time to do it now and cannot be delayed.

"However, they want it to be done until new appointments for the EC are made. To appoint the officials under which law?" he added.

- Bernama