Pakatan Rakyat (PR) must accept their defeat in the 13th General Election (GE13) and move on to prepare for the next general election.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) Executive Director, Wan Saiful Wan Jan said today that the Election Commission (EC) has carried out its responsibility well during the election period, from Nomination day up until polling day.

He said any allegations by certain quarters towards the electoral roll does not involve the EC, instead it comes from the National Registration Department (NRD).

“The EC cannot be blamed for any issue involving the electoral roll as it is not under its (EC) jurisdiction, instead it’s the National Registration Department’s job,” said Wan Saiful during a Post GE13 forum at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

“It’s not the EC’s job to determine whether an person who owns an identity card can sing the ‘Negara ku’ or not,” he said.

Wan Saiful said the perception that the EC cannot be trusted was believed to have been raised by PR long ago and the allegations raised after GE13 is caused by those perception.

“Since Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has taken over the administration in 2009, Pakatan has tried to build a perception that the EC cannot be trusted while the Barisan Nasional (BN) tried to portray that the Pakatan is violent,” he said.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) should accept their defeat in the 13th General Election (GE13) and move on to prepare for the next general election.

According to the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) Executive Director Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the Election Commission (EC) had carried out its responsibility well during the election period, from Nomination day up until polling day.

He said any allegations by certain quarters towards the electoral roll does not involve the EC, instead it comes from the National Registration Department (NRD).

“The EC cannot be blamed for any issue involving the electoral roll as it is not under its (EC) jurisdiction, instead it’s the National Registration Department’s job,” said Wan Saiful during a Post GE13 forum at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

“It’s not EC’s job to determine whether an person who owns an identity card can sing the ‘Negara ku’ or not,” he said.

Wan Saiful said the perception that EC cannot be trusted was believed to have been raised by PR long ago and the allegations raised after GE13 is caused by those perception.

“Since Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took over the administration in 2009, Pakatan has tried to build a perception that EC cannot be trusted while Barisan Nasional (BN) tried to portray that Pakatan is violent,” he said.

Meanwhile Prof Datuk Mohamad Abu Bakar from Universiti Malaya (UM) said that Umno’s success in adding its seat was not because of the party’s strength but because of the qualms between Pas and DAP.

He also advised Pas leaders to decide whether they want to stick to the old formula that says Islam belongs to the Malays which is full of superstition or move on to a new formula which can be accepted by the general public.

“If Hj Hadi or Haron Din or Harun Taib want to stick to the old formula, it is no use for them to fight against Umno, because they might as well join Umno from the start,” he said.

Another panelist, Dr Thock Ker Pong also from UM, said the results in GE13 shows that MCA should think about its role as being a party representing the Chinese community.