KUALA LUMPUR: Going back to the polls for a fresh mandate may not be the best option financially for the country at this juncture, say experts.
They believe that on top of the economic cost, an election would also rattle the market, which could lead to further negative implications.
Economist Mohd Nazari Ismail said a return to the polls would be costly in terms of time and money.
“We just need a government to continue to govern until the next general election. The market is nervous and there will be negative financial implications from all this,” he told the New Straits Times.
Fluctuations in the ringgit from the weekend till today has marked the crisis. On Tuesday, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) declined 2.54 per cent, or 38.94 points, plunging to its lowest in almost 10 years.
The Election Commission (EC), believed if another election was called, it would be even more expensive than the 14th General Election. It is understood that almost RM500 million was spent on GE14. This was an almost nine per cent increase from the RM460 million spent on GE13 in 2013.
An EC officer said while it was difficult to estimate how much snap polls would cost, the figure would swell due to the rising number of registered voters.
GE14 drew 14.9 million voters to the polls. The EC had estimated that GE15, due on 2023, could see more than 22 million voters casting their ballots.
EC chairman Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun said the next election, if called, “would be more expensive”.
This, he said, was because of the effort that would be taken by the commission to improve the voters’ experience.
The EC had embarked on a series of reforms, such as giving more access to election observers, appointing non-governmental organisation as representatives as polling station heads and election workers, speeding up the release of results and live-streaming the vote counting process on Facebook in the last few by-elections.
It also played a key role in lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. It also aimed to implement the automatic voter registration before GE15.
Arphan Ahmad, who is the secretary of elections watchdog Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections, said snap polls would mean using funds that could be better channelled towards economic development.
“Even if it feels like a snap election is democracy in progress, at the end of the day, you will deprive people of funds for development.”
“The issue can still be resolved. Snap polls are messy,” he said.
Economic analyst Professor Dr Hoo Ke Ping noted that before snap elections could be called, the powers-that-be needed to exhaust the settlement that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had laid out for them.
He said Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah was overseeing the process by interviewing members of parliament to see who can command a majority as prime minister and form a government.
“This is due process. Once the king is ready, he can call for a meeting at the Conference of Rulers, where his recommendation will be made known.”
He said democracy was not just about freedom of choice, but a processes bound by the Constitution.
“In this case, he said, the process involved the powers bestowed upon the constitutional monarchy.
“Snap polls can be called only when there is a stalemate or a hung Parliament. This happened when the defectors from PKR and Bersatu formed a pact, and Dr Mahathir lost their support over the weekend.
“If a vote of no-confidence was brought against him in Parliament, then that could have paved the way for snap polls.
“However, things changed when he resigned and was appointed interim prime minister.
“Now, he is serving at the pleasure of the king. Any call for snap polls can be deemed as intrusive, denying the political process and possibly disrespecting the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.”