GEORGE TOWN, Jan 7 — Penang told the Election Commission (EC) today not to conduct an electoral redelineation exercise for the state similar to Sarawak’s that it claimed was imbalanced and possibly involved gerrymandering.
Penang electoral delineation committee co-chairmen Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin and Tanjung MP Ng Wei Aik expressed worries that the Penang EC may mirror Sarawak’s delineation exercise that had raised concerns on the manipulation of polls boundaries.
“We don’t want to face a similar delineation exercise like Sarawak, which is why we are appealing to meet with Penang EC to ensure there is transparency in the exercise here,” they told reporters at a press conference in Komtar today.
The duo referred to the EC’s recommendations to increase the number of Sarawak state seats from the current 71 to 82.
“If we look at what is happening in Sarawak, the number of voters for the parliamentary and state constituencies were not balanced and do not fulfill the “one man, one vote, one value” principle,” they said.
EC had proposed the 11 new seats for Sarawak to be N13 Batu Kitang; N17 Stakan; N18 Serembu; N23 Triboh; N26 Gedong; N40 Kabong; N57 Telian; N63 Selirik; N66 Murum; N70 Samalaju and N78 Long Lama.
The Penang committee alleged that the EC has failed to practise transparency in the whole re-delineation process and has also failed to consult stakeholders involved.
The EC’s reluctance to meet with the Penang state government representatives to discuss this exercise had also raised doubts on their credibility as an independent body, they claimed.
They alleged that up till now, everyone has been kept in the dark on the re-delineation process and how it was done.
“The re-delineation exercise is still a mystery, we don’t know who or how they draw the boundaries,” Sim said.
He pointed at the proposed Sarawak state seats of Gedong and Batu Kitang where the difference in electorate was 215 per cent.
Gedong has an electorate of 6,340 while Batu Kitang has an electorate of 20,107.
“How can there be such a big difference between two state seats,” he said.
Sim cited his Bayan Baru parliamentary constituency as an example where it has an electorate of over 80,000.
He said there are parliamentary constituencies in Sarawak with an electorate of about 20,000 each so there are four MPs to represent the same number of voters as Bayan Baru.
The duo also raised concerns on the possible delineation conducted in Penang.
“Perhaps they might split Umno-held constituencies to give them more seats,” Ng suggested.
After the EC made the delineation proposal in Sarawak public on Monday, opposition leaders and election watchdog Bersih 2.0 have raised concerns on the lack of transparency in the exercise, lack of details in the maps along with claims of possible gerrymandering.
The delineation exercise is a redrawing of electoral boundaries to correct imbalances in voter population size.
Gerrymandering is the manipulation in drawing the boundary lines to provide an unfair advantage to a certain party.
Once the EC displays the proposed new boundaries, only three parties can object to it, namely the state government, the local authority, and a group of 100 affected voters.
The three parties only have 30 days to object to the proposed boundaries and propose their own.
Penang set up the electoral delineation committee on September 26 last year to represent the state government in all matters pertaining to the re-delineation exercise in the state.
Ng, Sim and Parit Buntar MP Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusoff Rawa co-chaired the committee.
