Minister for Elections and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the recommendations made in the 2014 Electoral Commission Annual Report were now redundant because most of the suggestions have been addressed.

While responding to Opposition MP Professor Biman Prasad, he said the current electoral process was a vast improvement from those practised in the past.

“Under the previous legal framework, the EU report, which we have shared on this floor so many times before said that for the 2006 elections, the elections were reasonably conducted,” he said.

“Why? Because there were so many anomalies in the 2006 elections.

“I don’t want to sort of list all of them, but the fact of the matter is that sort of shenanigans don’t happen anymore.”

He said according to the EU assessment, the Electoral Commission in the 2006 elections was not adequately resourced.

“Although it has the powers to issue regulations, the Electoral Commission lacked the funding, staff and also the initiative to be more involved in the 2006 elections.

“Crucial regulations during the campaign period, campaign finance, member’s representations and a code of conduct for political parties were not introduced.

“No guidelines were issued by the office of the Supervisor of Elections on the recruitment criteria for polling staff and the number of presiding officers was very limited and reflected the lack of policy guidelines in breach of the 1998 Electoral Act.”

He added three amendment Bills on the electoral process before Parliament last week was also part of Government’s efforts to adhere to these recommendations.