In the Chinese Press: Constituency re-delineation motion expected in March
by Chan Wei See, Fz.com
The Prime Minister’s Department is expected to table in Parliament the constituency re-delineation motion come March.
Should it be passed, the Election Commission (EC) will complete its electoral constituency re-delineation exercise in two years and table the proposal in 2015 for approval.
By doing so, EC will act in accordance with the 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution and redraw the boundaries based on the size of the electorate in a bid to balance the number of voters (not more than 100,000 voters each) in all constituencies.
Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof’s said this in an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily today.
Looking at a surge in the number of voters and a ten-year gap from the last exercise, Abdul Aziz stressed that a re-delineation exercise must be carried out, especially in constituencies with more than 100,000 voters.
According to a list published by the vernacular newspaper, the parliamentary constituencies with electorate size exceeding 100,000 are Kapar, Serdang, Subang, Hulu Langat, Gombak, Puchong, Kota Raja, Selayang, Kelana Jaya (all located in Selangor), Seremban (Negeri Sembilan), Gelang Patah, Pasir Gudang and Pulai (all in Johor).
Article 113 (2) (ii) of the Federal Constitution stated that the re-delineation must be conducted within a period of not less than eight years and not more than 10 years from the completion of the previous review.
The report said EC was planning to conduct the exercise in 2011 but had to postpone it due to the 13th general election (GE-13).
EC has brought up the matter again after the polls. However, Bersih 2.0 has called on the commission to stop the exercise until it has cleaned up the electoral rolls and the entire EC leadership resigned.
Seats for MPs increased to 280
Sin Chew Daily also reported today that the Parliament building will be able to accommodate 280 seats after renovation, giving rise to the conjecture of a possible increase in the number of parliamentary constituencies after the re-delineation exercise.
The daily learned that 18 seats would be added to the existing 242 seats for MPs (which is 20 more than the actual number of MPs) when the on-going renovation work is completed in February 2016.
