KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 ― The Election Commission (EC) is helping the ruling Barisan Nasional government in a purported "electoral grab” of Selangor by transferring out opposition-friendly voting districts, DAP's Klang MP Charles Santiago claimed today.

Santiago specifically cited the EC's plans to reconfigure the state seat of Pelabuhan Klang under his Klang federal seat as "a good example of how to cheat”.

Noting that it will be "butchered” under the EC's proposed redrawing of electoral boundaries, he said Pelabuhan Klang will see its number of registered voters cut from around 41,000 to about 28,000 through the removal of those backing the federal opposition.

The seat is currently held by former Selangor mentri besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who won it with a majority of 2,994 votes in Election 2013 while he was still with PKR. He has since been sacked from the party.

"This is outright cheating,” he told reporters here.

"Now they want Pelabuhan Klang very badly, so win at all cost, so the people who voted in support of [the federal opposition] have been taken to Kota Alam Shah, which is now under Kota Raja,” he added.

"The design is to consolidate opposition areas into less Parliament seats and less state seats and keep the BN seats small so they can win the next election,” he added when commenting on the EC's redelineation plans.

He pointed out the "superpacking” of seven opposition-held federal seats within Selangor to boost up their numbers to between 120,000 to 150,000 voters, which would dilute the value of individual votes there, citing Klang, Kota Raja, Gombak and the future renamed seats of Damansara (Petaling Jaya Utara), Bangi (Serdang), Petaling Jaya (Petaling Jaya Selatan) and Subang (Kelana Jaya).

In comparison, Sabak Bernam has around 37,000 registered voters, while Sungai Besar and Tanjung Karang only have around 42,000 voters each, which would give their votes greater impact, he highlighted. All three are BN-held Selangor seats.

The EC's plans for the Selangor seats would go against the principle of "one person, one vote”, he said, adding: "It's not allowing for equal representation among all groups in society ― all races, urban and rural.”

"Barisan wants to win election at all costs and the Election Commission is supporting that. The EC is undermining parliamentary democracy in Malaysia. The conduct of EC is detrimental to parliamentary democracy,” he said.

Citing his own Klang seat that will go from 97,000 to 141,000 voters ― a 46 per cent increase ― Santiago said the proposed redelineation would not allow federal lawmakers to effectively serve their constituents, and highlighted how his seat would be made to stretch from Pulau Indah to Meru geographically.

The Klang federal seat currently consists of the three state constituencies: Pelabuhan Klang, Pandamaran and Kota Alam Shah.

But under the EC's latest proposed redelineation, the voters and 14 polling stations under the existing Kota Alam Shah state seat will be shifted to the Pandamaran state seat within the Kota Raja area.

This will cause the Pandamaran state seat to have its voter numbers more than double from around 28,000 to 59,000 voters ― which is even larger than the BN-held federal seats such as Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar and Tanjung Karang. Pandamaran will also have 25 polling centres under the new boundaries.

At the same time, the name of Kota Alam Shah will be reused for a state seat that is not within the initial Klang federal seat, but within the Kota Raja federal seat.

A map showing the Election Commission's proposed new boundary lines for the Klang and Kota Raja parliamentary seats and the state seats within them. ― Picture by Ida Lim

Azmizam Zaman Huri, the PKR coordinator for the Pelabuhan Klang state constituency currently held by Khalid, dissected the proposed new arrangement by the EC.

Voters under the Sungai Aur polling district in the Pelabuhan Klang seat will be shifted to the Pandamaran state seat within the Kota Raja parliamentary seat, while the three new polling areas of Bandar Bukit Tinggi 1, Bandar Bukit Tinggi 2 and Bandar Botanic will be placed under the state seat in Kota Raja bearing the recycled name of Kota Alam Shah, he said.

Azmizam also touched on the EC's alleged transferring of voting districts based on the voters' ethnicities and the resulting breaking up of mixed-race areas that are opposition-friendly, citing the use of past election patterns in certain areas where the federal opposition had relatively lower support among voting areas dominated by Malay voters and higher backing in non-Malay or mixed-race areas.

"You divide and rule. I can imagine the next election is going to be about race and religion,” the PKR supreme council member said at the same press conference.

Santiago said he will organise a roadshow in Klang to create awareness among voters of the EC's plans and to encourage voters to turn up for the Bersih 5 rally on November 19 to demand for free and fair elections.

He also urged voters to file objections with a minimum of 100 voters each to the EC before the deadline of October 14.