KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng urged Malaysians today to stay united after the Election Commission (EC) admitted to redrawing constituency boundaries based on race.

Lim said by lumping ethnic groups in a single constituency instead of creating ethnically-mixed seats, EC was promoting the race-based Barisan Nasional (BN) formula where voters see themselves as Malays first, Chinese first, Indian first, Iban first or Kadazan first instead of Malaysian first.

"Malaysians must unite against those who wish to build walls that separate us and push us into racial enclaves to divide and turn Malaysians against each other.

"The recent constituency delineation for the 14th general elections is a shocking exercise of not only shameless political gerrymandering but also irresponsible ‘electoral apartheid’,” Lim said in his message ahead of Easter tomorrow.

The DAP secretary-general also accused the EC of violating the "one person, one vote, one value” principle by putting Opposition voters in one seat and spreading BN supporters across many seats.

"In a democracy, voters choose politicians but in a political gerrymandering, politicians choose voters.”

EC chairman Tan Sri Mohd Hashim Abdullah reportedly said the EC’s redelineation proposal drew constituency boundaries along racial lines because the commission believed ethnic groups should be kept together.

New electoral boundaries have already taken effect after Parliament adopted the EC’s redelineation report. No new seats have been added in the exercise.