The Bar Council Elections takes place every year during the month of November. The purpose of the Elections is to elect members who will sit in Council and tasked under the Legal Profession Act to manage the affairs of the Malaysian Bar and to carry out various functions as specified under the Act. Candidates for the Elections are nominated by at least 3 members – you should have received your nomination papers by now! By early November, Bar Council will announce the candidates and ballot papers are sent to members for them to vote.
The question is how many members even bother to vote? Out of 13,000 members, Bar Council only received the returned ballot papers in the region of 3,000. Most members, when asked about the Elections, do not know how to participate as they have no clue who to elect, or who is best to represent their interests in Bar Council. More often than not, the ballot papers end up in the dustbin.
With this in mind, the Kuala Lumpur Bar Young Lawyers Committee will embark on a first-of-its-kind initiative to create awareness amongst the members of the Bar on the coming Bar Council Elections. We call it, ‘Candidate Watch’.
How does it work? Simple. Once the Bar Council announces the list of candidates in early November 2010, we will send to each candidate a set of questions relating to the issues affecting the Bar through email, post and/or fax. Candidates will then be given a week to answer the questions. The answers will then be published on the Bar website to assist you in your assessment and casting of your vote.
It is hoped that with this initiative, more members will vote in the Elections, instead of throwing their ballot papers away.