EC urged to comply with Federal Constitution in proposed delineation exercise

KUCHING: The Election Commission ( EC) has been urged to withdraw the proposed notice of delimitation exercise in Peninsular Malaysia and have consultative meetings with all political parties and concerned non-governmental organisations to come out with a better proposal, in compliance with the principles of delimitation and delineation laid down in the Federal Constitution.

State PKR vice chairman See Chee How described the proposed recommendations that were published on Sept 15 as ‘ most terrible’.

“This is really not good for Malaysia. It only confirms everybody’s suspicion that the EC is taking this delimitation and delineation exercise to make sure that Umno will win more seats in the coming General Election,” he said in a press conference here yesterday.

See, who is Batu Lintang assemblyman, opined the way the constituencies in Peninsular Malaysia were delineated was totally in violation of the principles that were required under the Federal Constitution.

“At the moment, of course, all the political parties, including those in BN, they are not happy with the delineation and a lot of non-governmental organisations ( NGOs) for those who are trying to uphold clean and fair election especially Bersih, they are trying to organise these objectors and I understand that there will be NGOs and political parties that will be bringing the delineation to the Court.”

See said the main principle of ‘one person, one vote, one value’ should be observed by the EC in its proposed recommendation, giving due weightage to specified factors such as vastness and administrative constraints for the rural constituencies.

“Most of the areas in Peninsular Malaysia, you can consider them as semi-rural and semi-urban but right now, you still have the big difference in the number of voters of between 30,000 to 150,000.”

He warned that the EC would be in for “huge surprises” if it continues with its proposed recommendations. See said he was in Kuala Lumpur last week to share his experience with lawyers and political party leaders on his legal challenge on the delineation exercise conducted in Sarawak last year.

“I just share my experience with the lawyers and some party leaders. I believe there will be a lot of objections and some are contemplating legal challenges to stop this delineation exercise.”

In comparison between the case in Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, See said his challenge was focused on the sufficiency of ‘notice’ and ‘detailed particulars’ of the EC’s recommendations, whereas in Peninsular Malaysia, the lawyers are examining all aspects including the constitutionality and legality of the process.

“This time, the EC is quite careful with their notice. If you compare the notice that they published the last time for Sarawak and now in Peninsular Malaysia, they have made some changes. Instead of using the words ‘detailed particulars’, they used only ‘particulars’. They have certainly published the notice more extensively this time, in all national papers and regional papers for this delineation proposal.”

“However, it does not change the fact that the EC’s proposed recommendations for the delimitation and delineation exercise is a terrible one, and most objectionable,” said See.