The Election Commission, in its second redelineation notice, has retained most federal and state boundaries as in 2013.
Lawyer Derek Fernandez said although there was “a little bit of improvement” by EC in this second notice, the proposed redelineation exercise had gone back to status quo, adopting the current electoral roll.
“Sabak Bernam is still the smallest federal seat in Selangor with around 37,000 voters, compared with Kapar, which has the largest number at over 146,000 voters.
“The commission is diluting the voting power of the people and it is not fair.
“It is like the EC cutting a piece of cake unequally for distribution,” he told FMT, in describing the representation in oversized and undersized parliamentary seats.
Fernandez was responding to the EC’s second notice of redelineation published today.
Under the second notice, the commission retained its proposal to change the name of the Serdang parliamentary seat to Bangi.
The proposed change in names of state seats, such as Sungai Tua (formerly known as Batu Caves), Pandan Indah (Chempaka), Sungai Ramal (Bangi) and Banting (Teluk Datuk), have been maintained in this new notice.
In the first notice posted on October 2016, EC had proposed to change names of five federal seats and six state seats.
It also proposed to move several state constituencies into other parliamentary constituencies, making some parliamentary seats like Petaling Jaya Utara, Petaling Jaya Selatan and Kelana Jaya to be oversized with between 128,000 and 150,000 voters.
Bersih 2.0 also said EC had not fixed the malapportionment and gerrymandering issues.
The electoral group pointed out that the Seri Serdang state seat has five times the voters, compared with Sungai Air Tawar.
“Selangor voters must therefore object to the second display of redelineation in large numbers,” it said in a statement.
Fernandez said EC should act like a “referee” in a football match to ensure a fair game.
“If there is malapportionment, EC has a job to do, which is to reduce the number of voters and make the seats equally represented.
“The proposal does not appear to be prepared by a professional government body but by politicians.”
When asked if he would file an objection on behalf of Petaling Jaya City Council or in his capacity as a Petaling Jaya Selatan voter, Fernandez said he needed to study the second notice in detail first to see if the proposal dilutes the people’s voting powers.
“It is unfair to dilute the people’s voting powers.
“A voter in Sabak Bernam has three times more voting power because of the small number of voters there compared with Serdang voters.”
G Manivannan, who is MP for Kapar, one of the largest federal constituencies, said that there is no political will from the EC to resolve unequal distribution of voters among parliamentary seats.
“In the first notice, EC took out Sungai Pinang from Kapar, and chucked it into Klang.
“Yes, it reduced the number of Kapar voters initially in the first notice but the bulk was passed to YB Charles Santiago (Klang MP). What is the point of redrawing boundaries when the EC does not address malapportionment?”
There are four state seats under the Kapar parliamentary seat — Meru, Sementa, Sungai Pinang and Selat Kelang.
He said a “reasonable, fair and prudent” EC chairman can tell there is a vast difference between a constituency with 25,000 voters and one with 150,000 voters.
“If EC wants to show it is non-partisan, then it should have a formula to guide it on how to draw electoral boundaries,” he said.
Santiago said that EC had failed to look into “local ties” when drawing boundaries.
“Pulau Ketam, an area under Kapar, should come under the Pelabuhan Klang state seat because of local ties, as people take boats from Pelabuhan Kelang to Pulau Ketam.
“If the EC were to really exercise its constitutional duty, Pulau Ketam should be under Pelabuhan Kelang.”
The Selangor government previously filed a legal challenge in October 2016 against the EC’s redelineation exercise in court, claiming this proposed exercise violated the Federal Constitution.
The High Court dismissed their case in December last year but granted a stay order pending the state government’s appeal.
The stay order was lifted by the Court of Appeal less than two weeks after the High Court’s decision.
Selangor filed another legal challenge against the EC this month, to stop the first inquiry hearing but failed to obtain an injunction to halt the hearing.
The EC started its local inquiry hearings on Dec 28, 2017 and completed it on Jan 9.
Selangor fails to stop EC from proceeding with its local inquiry
EC completes local inquiry over Selangor electoral boundaries
The views expressed in the contents are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of FMT.
lagi info di : Gosip Artis Terkini