GEORGE TOWN, Oct 14 ― The Penang state government submitted its objections against the Election Commission's (EC) redelineation exercise today.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the EC has failed to conduct the redelineation exercise in accordance to the Federal Constitution.
“We feel that the redelineation exercise conflicted with Schedule 13 of the Federal Constitution, which states that each constituency in each state must has (sic) about the same number of voters, except in cases where the voters have difficulties to go to their voting district,” he said.
He highlighted Paya Terubong, which is the largest seat with 41,707 voters, while his seat, Air Putih, had more than 1,000 voters removed in the redelineation exercise, leaving only 12,752 voters.
“This means there is a difference between both state constituencies by 3.27 times. In short, one Paya Terubong seat can make up more than three seats,” he said.
He said the redelineation exercise, by right, should try to balance the number of voters between constituencies instead of creating such a large difference.
He also said the exercise violated the one person, one vote principle.
Lim said they have a set up a new three-person committee to study the redelineation exercise, consisting of Tanjung MP Ng Wei Aik, Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim and Parit Buntar MP Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, with state executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo as the coordinator.
He said the total objections sent to the EC were for three parliamentary constituencies, namely Bukit Mertajam, Bukit Bendera and Bukit Gelugor and five state constituencies: Air Putih, Sungai Pinang, Seri Delima, Air Itam and Paya Terubong.
“Objections from 100 voters from each of these constituencies were also submitted,” he added.
The EC has been heavily criticised over its redelineation exercise, with Pakatan Harapan leaders accusing them of using it to help Barisan Nasional (BN) recapture some of its seats.
Today is the last day to submit objections to the EC recommendations. Objections can only be made by state governments, local authorities who are partly or partially included in the redelineation exercise, or a group of no less than 100 registered voters of an affected constituency.
The EC in an 18-page notice had reportedly proposed to alter the electoral boundaries of several parliamentary and state constituencies in all states bar Perlis, Labuan and Putrajaya.
The proposed amendments could see 12 parliamentary and 34 state constituencies in the peninsula undergo a name change. The EC also listed 13 proposed new state constituencies for Sabah, increasing the number of the state seats to 73.
