Tindak, Moderates Movement want voters involved in constituency delimitation process
(TMI) – Civil society movement Tindak Malaysia (Tindak) wants to recruit some 100,000 voters to scrutinise the delimitation recommendations by the Election Commission (EC) when it unveils its redrawn boundaries.
And for this purpose, Tindak is teaming up with the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM), which will help the NGO “amplify” the call for voter education on constituency delimitation.
GMM’s chief executive officer Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah will also assist in setting up a meeting between NGOs working on electoral reforms and the EC leadership to impress upon them the importance of allowing the rakyat to be involved in the delimitation process.
He added that delimitation involves the establishing of democratic institutions, strengthening them and also widening people’s participation in the quest for free and fair elections.
“A big proportion of our electorate is already in the third stage where they are looking at before, during and after the ballot day.
“In the last two general elections, people have started to talk about quality representation, and so we have to address issues of gerrymandering and malapportionment and the value of each vote,” he said today.
Saifuddin said he supported Tindak’s idea that they should consult with the EC and propose ideas to the election body.
“We want the delimitation process to be transparent and as inclusive as possible, and not limit consultation only with political parties but also include civil society and the rakyat as well,” he added.
Tindak’s founder P.Y. Wong said he hoped they could meet the EC before it tables the redrawn boundaries proposal in Parliament.
He added that Tindak had redrawn the boundaries based on its “one person, one vote, one value” principle, as a guide, which could be used to compare and analyse against EC’s redrawn boundaries.
“We just want to be able to give feedback and counter-proposal to the EC based on analysis on what a fair map should look like,” Wong said.
“Once this process is completed, the delimitation of constituency boundaries at state and parliamentary levels will be a true reflection of the public’s will,” Wong said.
