KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — The Election Commission’s (EC) proposal to add 11 state seats in Sarawak appears to be a politically expedient move for state elections due 2016 as no federal seats were increased, an opposition MP said today.
DAP strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming said increasing the number of parliamentary seats may delay the electoral redelineation exercise as it would involve a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds majority in Parliament, where the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) only controls a simple majority.
“What is the rationale for increasing the number of state seats by 11 but not adding a single parliament seat?” Ong said in a statement.
“If an increase in the voting population is used to justify the increase in state seats, why should that rationale not apply to parliament seats as well?” the Serdang MP added.
Ong pointed out that in the three past electoral redelineation exercises in the east Malaysian state in 1986, 1996 and 2005 where state seats were increased, federal seats were also added.
BN lost its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority in the historic 2008 general election and ceded seven more federal seats to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in 2013.
Polls watchdog Bersih has dubbed EC’s proposal to increase the number of state seats in Sarawak from 71 to 82 unconstitutional as the constituency sizes were not equal, hence making voters underrepresented.
Bersih member Dr Wong Chin Huat said Tuesday there were about 46 constituencies that failed to meet the requirements stated in the Federal Constitution’s 13th Schedule in Part 1, Section 2, where all constituencies ought to be approximately equal.
For seats to be approximately equal in size, Bersih proposed that rural seats should not exceed 33 per cent below the average constituency size, while urban seats should not exceed 15 per cent of the same.
Wong noted that the average state constituency in Sarawak has 13,526 voters but some areas such as Pelawan has 31,388 voters, which he claimed exceeded the average at about 132.06 per cent.
