KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — Bersih 2.0 condemned opposition party PAS today for mooting a review of voting lines according to race, criticising the idea as “unconstitutional”.

The election reform movement reminded PAS that its latest overture was contrary to the Islamist party’s own slogan, “PAS for all” besides going against the Federal Constitution’s aim of promoting “peace and harmony among all peoples in Malaysia”.

“Even in merely entertaining race-based delineation, PAS has betrayed this ideal,” Bersih 2.0 said in a statement.

According to the election watchdog, a redelineation exercise using racial considerations is unconstitutional because race is not part of the required conditions listed in the Federal Constitution.

It said Malaysians should not be identified by their skin colour, and told PAS and other political parties to “stop dividing” citizens based on their ethnicity in a bid to further their political agendas.

Bersih 2.0 is the latest group to criticise the political party following a leaked Whatsapp chat among PAS leaders, in which a suggestion to revise electoral constituencies based on race was also discussed.

“Change boundaries end of this year, return the political power of the Malay Muslim,” PAS Research Centre operations director Dr Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki was shown saying in a screenshot of the discussion.

The leaked Whatsapp chat has triggered friction within the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition pact, after Mohd Zuhdi drew up a scenario where PAS divorced its PKR and DAP to join up with political foe Umno to control Malaysia’s richest state.

In it, Mohd Zuhdi was shown saying the alliance would allow Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to remain the Selangor mentri besar, besides enabling PAS to override dissent from political partner DAP, churches and non-Muslims over any raids of the use of the Arabic word “Allah”.

The message did not elaborate on the changing of boundaries and how it would be achieved.

Mohd Zuhdi has since clarified that the message highlighted in the screenshot was merely one of several scenarios he was asked to outline by his peers in an evaluation of the ongoing standoff over plans to remove Khalid from his post.

The Election Commission is reportedly planning a redelineation exercise, where the number of federal seats could be increased from the current 222 to 280.

Bersih 2.0 had voiced concern over the planned exercise, citing alleged cases of gerrymandering and electoral fraud by the EC in past elections.