PKR asks for status of application for redelineation of constituencies
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sabah has demanded the State Government to make public the detail of its application to the Federal Government for redelineation of the state's parliamentary constituencies.
Its chairman, Christina Liew, stressed that this is only appropriate as the people of Sabah deserve the right to know how such a move, if implemented, is going to affect their future.
“As a responsible State Government, it should have automatically informed the public on what are the proposed new parliamentary constituencies in the said application right from the beginning, without having to be told. There should be nothing to hide from the public, of course unless there's something fishy about the move,” she contended.
She was responding to the statement issued by State Secretary Tan Sri Sukarti Wakiman on Thursday, who announced that the Sabah Government has submitted an application to the Federal Government for redelineation of the state's parliamentary constituencies.
Sukarti said the redelineation of the parliamentary constituencies in Sabah was justified as the last one was done 15 years ago, in 2003.
However, he did not provide any information on what are the proposed constituencies, except for saying that the application was made in light of the approval given for the proposed redelineation of state constituencies by the Sabah State Legislative Assembly.
In a response issued yesterday, Liew who is also the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sabah chairman cum Api-Api assemblywoman, also charged that the said move is yet another gerrymandering exercise by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government to ensure its winning chances in the coming 14th general election (14GE), especially at the federal level.
“It's a questionable move indeed, especially considering the fact that the Election Commission's (EC) redelineation report on the review of the Sabah electoral boundaries and the increase of 13 state seats, was excluded without any explanation when it was tabled in Parliament, recently,” she pointed out.
This is despite the Sabah state government amending the state constitution in August 2016 to increase the number of state assembly seats from 60 to 73, around the same time the EC started the redelineation study nationwide.
Liew claimed that many political observers were of the opinion that the said exclusion was most likely due to the BN-led Sabah government realizing that the increase of 13 state seats may not necessary to their advantage in the coming 14GE after all, looking at the overwhelmingly ‘pro-opposition' sentiment in the country currently.
She also expressed regret over the State government's lackadaisical response to the exclusion of the EC's redelineation report on the review of the Sabah electoral boundaries and the increase of 13 state seats, when it was tabled in Parliament recently.
“In as far as we are concerned, the latest move by the State Government to submit its application to the Federal Government for redelineation of the state's parliamentary constituencies, without disclosing the proposed constituencies, is no less a high-handed tactic to undermine the opposition's chances of winning in the coming general election.
“We recognize the fact the BN government can't afford to lose power and are making all efforts to remain in power, by hook or by crook,” she said.
She thus reminded the voters to make an effort to check with the nearest EC office or the post office, to ensure that their names are still intact for the coming 14GE.
She reiterated that there has been a concerted and systematic effort of ‘importing/transferring' of voters from other places into her Api-Api constituency, even before the last general election in 2013.
“Altogether, as of to-date, 7,000 over voters had been moved into my Api-Api constituency. And on top of that, about 1,000 over Chinese voters from my constituency were transferred elsewhere, and I believe many of them might not be aware of it,” she pointed out.
“Hence, once again, I appeal to all the genuine voters of Api-Api to come out in full force to vote against the 7,000 over ‘imported, fixed deposit voters' in the coming general elections,” she reiterated.