Malaysia among world’s most unequal voter dispersal systems, says DAP MP
Malaysians queue outside a polling station to cast their vote in Pekan on May 5, 2013. — AFP pic
(The Malay Mail) – Ong Kian Ming pointed out that based on his own calculations, Malaysia ranked 21 out of 25 countries on the level of malapportionment, or the measure of inequality in the distribution of voters among seats in a country, noting that Botswana, Sierra Leone and Uganda scored higher at the 10th, 13th and 20th spots respectively.
The distribution of voters in Malaysia is one of the most unequal among countries that practise the first-past-the-post electoral system, falling behind even some African democracies, the DAP’s chief strategist said today.
Ong Kian Ming pointed out that based on his own calculations, Malaysia ranked 21 out of 25 countries on the level of malapportionment, or the measure of inequality in the distribution of voters among seats in a country, noting that Botswana, Sierra Leone and Uganda scored higher at the 10th, 13th and 20th spots respectively.
“The reason why the United States (US), Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada have lower levels of malapportionment compared to Malaysia is that they all have rules which limit the maximum amount of deviation allowed for in each individual constituency,” the first-term MP said in a statement today.
The Serdang MP noted that the US (0.014), Australia (0.03), the United Kingdom (UK) (0.041) and Canada (0.083) have far lower malapportionment measures than Malaysia (0.173).
Ong told The Malay Mail Online that Malaysia’s score of 0.173 meant that 17.3 per cent of voters needed to be shifted to achieve a score of zero malapportionment.
He said that the UK sets a five per cent limit for constituency sizes above or below the national quota, while Australia sets a 3.5 per cent limit above or below a state’s electoral quota. Canada sets a limit of 25 per cent above or below a province’s electoral quota, while in the US, various Supreme Court decisions require the population in each congressional district to be roughly equal in order to respect the “one-man-one-vote” principle.
The opposition lawmaker urged Putrajaya to follow the example of such advanced democracies by ensuring that the disparity among constituencies should not be more than 15 per cent from the average constituency size, as recommended by the Reid Commission before Independence in 1957.
In 1962, however, the Alliance government — the predecessor to the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition — amended the Federal Constitution to retrospectively annul the 1960 delineation and to mandate the Election Commission (EC) to submit new delineations to the prime minister for parliamentary approval.
Rural weightage was also changed in the same year so that urban constituencies could be double the size of rural constituencies.
The Federal Constitution was later amended again in 1973 to remove the limit entirely.
“To ensure that malapportionment in Malaysia is decreased to a level which is consistent with being the ‘world’s best democracy’, Prime Minister Najib should also establish a Parliamentary Select Committee to specifically oversee the next delimitation (or delineation) exercise which the Election Commission has announced will commence at the end of the year,” said Ong, referring to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“The fact that almost all of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform have not been implemented is a strong reminder of the lack of commitment on the part of the prime minister to introduce serious electoral reform in the country,” he added.
Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan reportedly said last May that the existing delineation of constituencies was illogical in terms of the number of voters and size.
The analyst had pointed out that the Putrajaya federal constituency only has 15,791 voters, compared to Kapar that has a whopping 144,159 voters.
