Referring to the fact that the redelineation did not include any increase in the number of Federal and state constituencies, Ipoh Barat MP M Kula Segaran said that the EC cannot deny the political factors that weighed in on their proposal.
“Since 2003, many Malaysians have become qualified voters. Any professional proposal will certainly entail the increase in the Parliament and state seats.
“Yet, the EC has not proposed any increase in the number of Parliament and state seats for Peninsular Malaysia.
“I don’t see how EC can deny that its failure to propose increase in seats is due to political consideration, in that the BN has no two-thirds parliamentary majority and it is also not the state government in Selangor,” Kula said in a statement today.
He dared the EC to deny the fact that there is no increase in the Parliament and state seats because the whole redelineation exercise could then be easily shot down by the Opposition.
“Can the EC deny that if there is a proposal to increase state seats in Selangor, then the redelineation exercise will have to be debated in the state assembly? And hence the unfair proposal which favours Umno in the next general election will not be adopted.
“Similarly, if there is a proposal to increase the parliamentary seats, then the exercise will have to be supported by a two-thirds vote and Barisan Nasional (BN) does not have a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
“However, with no proposed increase in Parliament seats, then the redelineation will only require a simple parliamentary majority to be approved,” Kula said, adding that this is the first time that even the MCA and Gerakan are vehemently against the redelineation proposal.
He also pointed to the malapportionment and gerrymandering which has resulted in the creation of 13 super-sized constituencies, where the number of voters in each constituency exceeds 100,000, as proof that the EC has violated the constitutional principle of one man one vote.
“From the way that many polling districts have been removed and added to strengthen certain constituencies while weakening others, it is obvious that a massive gerrymandering exercise has been carried out.
“How could the EC which is supposed to be independent come up with such an unacceptable proposal,” Kula, who is also DAP National Vice-Chairman, said, adding that this also shows that the EC has not done a professional job.