Call for truth as to why 13 new state seats not tabled

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah deputy president Darell Leiking has called for the truth to be revealed as to why the 13 new state seats which the State Legislative Assembly had gazetted on 17th August 2016 were not tabled by Prime Minister Najib in Parliament.

“Article 14 (2) of the Sabah State Constitution was amended on 9th August 2016 wherein the 60 state legislature seats were replaced with 73 state legislature seats.

“This was further gazetted through a royal assent by the Governor of Sabah on 17th August 2016 and this would, in effect, mean that the State Legislature now has 73 seats and not 60.

“Further to the addition of the new state seats as stated in the State Constitution, the Election Commission had been tasked to complete the re-delineation of the 13 new state seats in accordance with Article 113 (10) of the Federal Constitution,” he said in a statement yesterday.

“In my question posed to the Prime Minister during the Budget Debate in November 2017, the Prime Minister through Minister Azalina Binti Othman confirmed in writing that the EC had in fact already completed its study of the delineation of Sabah’s 13 new state seats’ electoral boundaries and she further confirmed in writing that the Election Commission’s final report was duly submitted to (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak as Prime Minister on 21st February 2017.

“As an afterthought, we now read news where Sukarti is telling us that the reason for the delay on tabling the 13 new seats/Sabah Delineation is that the state government wanted additional parliamentary seats for Sabah, but how does that tally with the rushed amendment and gazette to the Sabah Constitution on the increase of seats on 9th August 2016?” he queried.