The Election Commission’s (EC) report on the redrawing of electoral boundaries is incomplete and should not have been tabled in Parliament yet, PAS said today.
In his debate on the redelineation report, PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan listed several factors to support his claim, such as the fact that the 2018 sixth redelineation process report was different compared to the previous five redelineation practices.
This included the fact that there was no increase in parliamentary seats in the latest redelineation report, Takiyuddin said.
“In the previous redelineation processes, there had been the practice of seat addition. Such as in 1974, 10 seats were added, 19 seats added in 1984, 12 seats added in 1994, and 21 seats added in 2003.
“The ruling government gave the excuse that they lack a two-thirds majority, but the time is timely now for seats to be increased, and the government should support this. The Opposition pact would also want seats to be increased,” the Dewan Rakyat was told, today.
The Kota Baru MP said there would be disparity between the residents and the voters in the constituency in certain states, such as in Terengganu and Kelantan, which did not see an increase since 1984 and 1994 respectively.
He said the imbalance would affect the efficiency of the elected representatives especially for those in rural areas.
“Terengganu had only one seat added in 1984, while Kelantan had one additional seat in 1994.
“Those serving in urban areas have the convenience of amenities in terms of communications and infrastructure. But this is not applicable in rural areas,” he said.
Takiyuddin cited Baling (94, 809), Kuala Kedah (91,478), and Tumpat (101, 318) constituencies to have too many voters in comparison to Muar and Ayer Hitam, which only has 45, 862 voters and 42,962 voters respectively.
Apart from the embargoed status of the report, Takiyuddin said the 10-minute debate time allocated for each lawmaker was “only a quarter day” in comparison to the 2003 redelineation report, which was debated for two days from 7 to 8 April 2003.
He also noted that Sabah, for the first time, was not included in the report. - Mmail
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