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March 17, 2009 19:09 PM
Mafrel Needs Funds To Reach Remote Corners Of Batang Ai
KUCHING, March 17 (Bernama) -- The Malaysians for Free and Fair Election (Mafrel), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) given the green light to observe the Batang Ai state by-election, foresees problems in monitoring the polls due to the remoteness of the constituency.
Social activist Peter John Jaban, who has been appointed as the local cordinator to lead the 28-member observation team, said Tuesday that Mafrel, as an independent body, would need funds, including to hire boats to reach some localities such as Engkari.
"We will need to use a lot of boats to transverse the interior of Batang Ai and may have to hitch rides with the locals and other NGOs until sponsorships and donations are forthcoming," he told Bernama here.
With 8006 registered voters, there are 107 localities, comprising 238 longhouses and 15 villages in the 1,341-sq km rural Iban majority constituency bordering the Indonesian province of Kalimantan.
On Mafrel's role to assist the Election Commission (EC), he said his team would come out with a report at the end of the April 7 by-election "so that people won' t blame EC all the time for certain shortcomings in the election process".
The former disc jockey said Mafrel would monitor the situation in all the 24 polling stations to ensure that no power abuse or misuse of government facilities took place during nomination day on March 29, the campaigning period and polling day.
On the controversy surrounding his appointment, which drew criticism from Datuk Seri Dr James Masing, the Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) director of operations for the by-election, Jaban, who contested as an independent candidate in a three-cornered fight in Layar in the May 2006 state polls, maintained his neutral stand.
"I was appointed because I am a neutral person and have never joined any political party while Mafrel recognised my past contribution for being active in bringing up human rights issues, especially in Sarawak," he said in referring to his contest against BN incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu and Sarawak National Party (SNAP)'s Dayrell Walter Entrie in the last state polls.
The Batang Ai seat fell vacant on Feb 24, after the death of four-term incumbent Datuk Dublin Unting Ingkot, who was Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) vice-president and state assistant minister for sports and agriculture.
-- BERNAMA
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