Omission of Sabah review unconstitutional, says SAPP

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is taken aback that Sabah’s electoral review has been left out in the Election Commission’s (EC) report to Parliament.

Its president and former Sabah chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee said it would be unconstitutional for Sabah to face the polls after the amendment to the State constitution was approved in 2016 to include 13 new seats.

The leaked EC report to Parliament, he said, only had reviews for states in the peninsula.

Yong said the Federal Government must table the 13 new Sabah state seats in Parliament before the general election.

He said withholding the EC report on Sabah in effect was usurping the authority of Parliament.

“The Government has a duty to lay before Parliament the EC report on the review of the Sabah electoral boundaries and the increase of 13 state seats in time for the elections.

“The approval of the EC report is the authority of Parliament,” said Yong.

Sabah political parties from both Barisan Nasional and the Opposition questioned the legality of Parliament’s failure to approve the 13 new constituencies in the state assembly.

SAPP, once a Barisan component party, pulled out of the coalition in 2008.

Political parties argued that since the state constitution amended the number of members in assembly from 60 to 73, it is legally wrong not to hold elections for 73 seats.

But constitutional experts explained the changes to the state constitution will be valid only after Parliament approves the changes.

The state government had not yet made an official announcement on the controversy.

However, Barisan’s component party Upko (United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Mu rut Organisation), led by its president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau, who is also the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, said the state government did not consider it the right time to create 13 new constituencies in Sabah.

The EC report on the redelineation exercise was leaked online, just hours after it was given to lawmakers on Thursday.

The report is embargoed until Wednesday, when the motion on the EC’s redelineation exercise will be tabled for first reading.