KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — Never in the history of Parliament has the Speaker embargoed an Election Commission redelineation report, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said today.

The Gelang Patah MP said the move by Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia to embargo, until March 28, the report on the redrawing of constituency boundaries was a step back in accountability, transparency and good governance.

“The Election Commission’s final report for the latest constituency redelineation was tabled yesterday, but not the prime minister’s motion to adopt the Election Commission’s proposals,” he said in a statement.

The redelineation report is set to be tabled in Parliament next Wednesday.

In 1994, Lim pointed out that the EC’s final redelineation report and PM’s motion appeared on the Order Paper on the same day.

Likewise, in 2003, he noted that the EC’s redelineation report was tabled on April 3 and the PM’s motion appeared on the Order Paper on April 7, adding that the PM’s motion adopting the redelineation report was debated and passed on April 8.

But with this latest move, not only was it unprecedented, Lim said it had also become impossible to set up an all-party Parliamentary Select Committee to study the EC’s final redelineation proposals.

Lim also said that a judicial review by Selangor voters challenging the EC’s redelineation recommendations was not an excuse nor a justification for Pandikar’s ruling to prevent public knowledge of the report, or discussion among MPs.

Instead, he said Pandikar should await the outcome of this legal proceeding, including that of a Penang government challenge on the matter before fixing a date to debate the PM’s motion and subsequently, adopt the report.

“Why such indecent haste before the judiciary had made a final decision on the various legal suits on the EC’s redelineation exercise, which would fully in conformity with the doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary?

“Is next Wednesday’s motion by the prime minister designed to enable the prime minister to dissolve Parliament for the holding of the 14th general election, after the EC’s constituency redelineation proposals have been adopted by Parliament?” Lim said.

The report contains three books detailing the redelineation process and EC’s recommendations, each being close to 500 pages long.

It also has a map for all the redrawn boundaries and a draft order to adopt the new boundaries in conducting elections.

The EC began working on the current redelineation proposal in 2016.