EC not empowered to probe political parties' overspending in elections

The Election Commission (EC) has no jurisdiction to investigate any political party for allegedly overspending during election, said its chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

He said the powers of EC was only against the candidate contesting and within the campaign period only.

"What is raised by party members on election spending is a party matter which does not concern the EC.

"This is because the proceedings of a registered party on party expenditure is under the Societies Act and so on and do not come under election legislation," he said in a statement today.

The statement was in response to a report made by Tanjong MP, Ng Wei Aik and Rasah MP Teo Kok Seong against the Barisan Nasional (BN) allegedly spending more than the maximum amount permitted, claiming that overspending is an offence under the Election Offences Act 1954. The report was submitted by the MPs to the EC headquarters two days ago.

Mohd Hashim said the commission needed to be careful so as not to overstep its jurisdiction and not to trespass the authority of other bodies which have the powers to investigate comprehensively.

He said the issue raised by the MPs had been raised by other parties earlier such as Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) which took the commission to court.

"The High Court decision favoured the EC and there was no violation of powers by the EC in handling the 13th general election," he said.

Mohd Hashim said apart from that, election petitions were filed by the contesting candidates and the courts had made the decisions on these.

"The EC has gone through the legal process on elections and the interested parties had also obtained justice at the Election Court," he said.