2018 By-Election Observation Preliminary Findings
On November 3, the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE) and Phan Tee Eain (PTE) deployed 579 observers to observe by-elections in 12 of the 13 vacant constituencies. Generally, election-day was smooth, and no big incidents have been reported. According to the observation findings, there are no major improvements in the election administration compared with the 2017 by-elections. Instead, a lack of specific guidelines and procedures resulted in an inconsistent in election management. For instance, the polling stations were not setup to make them accessible to persons with disabilities, there was confusion among polling station officers on the roles and rights of party agents and observers, and there were inconsistencies on the use of the voter list. Some of these issues could be addressed with more effective training of polling station officials.