Feedback not needed on boundary redrawing, elections chief tells Bersih

By admin-s On Dec 18, 2014

(TMI) – The Election Commission (EC) will go ahead with the redelineation of electoral boundaries without input from civil society and will only engage groups identified in the Federal Constitution, said its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.

“We will stick to the provisions in the constitution on who we can meet in carrying out the task,” he told The Malaysian Insider in Kuala Lumpur recently.

This means shutting the door on Bersih 2.0, the country’s major civil society watchdog on polling and electoral reform, in favour of representatives from state governments and local authorities.

As far as the public’s voice is concerned, the EC is only required by law to engage at least 100 voters registered in a constituency to hear their objections on proposed changes to boundary delimitation or on any increase in the number of state and parliamentary seats.

“We are not going against the law if we refuse to meet the civil society representatives,” he said, in response to Bersih 2.0 chairman, Maria Chin Abdullah’s call on the EC to obtain feedback from non-governmental organisations when conducting the exercise.