No redelineation, at least not until 2025
EC: Checks to be done on most recent exercise to see if it followed the law
PUTRAJAYA: There will be no new redelineation exercise, not for another seven years.
The Election Commission ruled out any fresh redelineation exercise, but its chief says an assessment will be done on the latest one to see if it followed the law.
“If, after going through reports we find that it was not done correctly, we will come up with a proposal on how a redelineation should actually be done,” EC chairman Azhar Azizan Harun said after a closeddoor meeting with representatives of 32 registered political parties here yesterday.
He said a committee would be set up for the purpose and to come up, if necessary, with recommendations.
Azhar explained that the committee would only be tasked with ways to improve the exercise, and did not involve a fresh redelineation.
“I have said before that we cannot do it now because the Federal Constitution states that a redelineation can only be done once every eight years.
“If we proceed to do it, it will be unconstitutional,” he added.
The last exercise was done in 2017 – before the 14th General Election – as questions arose on whether the electoral boundaries were redrawn fairly.
On his meeting with the political parties, Azhar said they had agreed in principle to the EC’s reform pro- posal for automatic voter registration and lowering the voting age to 18.
However, Azhar said they want- ed to know the processes involved.
“The effects of the two proposals need to be scrutinised closely and there must be clearer understand- ing on how it will be done,” he added.
Azhar said the changes would take time as laws needed to be amended for this to be realised.
In September, the Cabinet agreed that the voting age be lowered from the present 21.
Azhar also confirmed that the EC had received from Bersih 2.0 its report over the recent Port Dickson by-election.
“We will look at it and see what can be done,” he said.
The report, which covered all aspects of the by-election including early voting and the tallying process, revealed 10 “issues” – six involving Pakatan Harapan and four on PAS.