Experts warns that undissolved state governments may use public funds to fund GE15 campaign

Political experts and analysts have pointed out that some political coalitions choose not to dissolve their state assemblies to use the resources from the state government to campaign for the upcoming general election (GE15).

Speaking on the matter, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Associate Professor Dr Muhammad Fathi Yusof said that, unlike a caretaker federal government, the still-active state governments can announce policies and projects to woo the voters’ into voting for the political coalition.

“The administrations that don’t want to seek the consent of the rulers to dissolve their state assemblies are not affected,” he said, adding that this is because our Constitution explained the relationship between the state and the federal administration within their respective frameworks.

Thus, he suggested that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) form a committee to supervise such incidents and make sure that are no such abuse of power during the campaigning period.

Meanwhile, former Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said that there is no conflict between the federal government and state governments as most projects were already approved before the campaigning period.

“No issues if the state leader approves projects during the campaigning period because they are already under the approved state budgets of the previous year,” he said.

“Only the caretaker government is not allowed to do that,” he added.

Ethical issues

However, Ilham Centre’s chief researcher Mohd Yusri Ibrahim pointed out that using public funds to campaign for a political coalition is unethical.

He also urges both active and caretaker governments against abusing their powers as it shows a lack of integrity and goes against democratic values.

“All political parties and candidates should compete equally to introduce their ideas to the voters.”

“General election is a democratic stage for the people to choose the government and thus, the race must be run on a levelled playing field,” Mohd Yusri said.