A Sabah politician has reminded the Election Commission (EC) that any redelineation of electoral boundaries for Malaysia must not favour any political parties.Datuk Seri Wilfred M. Bumburing (pic) referred to the polls body's redelineation proposal for Sarawak, which sparked accusations of gerrymandering.He said similar exercise for the rest of country must adhere to the provisions in the Federal Constitution, especially in the drawing up of more seats."The electoral boundaries must not be engineered in way as to favour a particular party to win more seats than the other parties in any general election."It would seem very illogical in the eyes of the international community to see a minority group of community winning more seats than the majority, because, regardless of whatever political philosophy a particular party upholds, the voting pattern is still along racial lines," said the Angkatan Perubahan Sabah president in a statement today.While agreeing that the delineation of electoral boundaries was needed since the last one took place in 2003, Bumburing said the EC need to meet with all stakeholders to obtain feedback before presenting the proposed exercise to Parliament.Any redelineation has to be in accordance to the 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution.The exercise to redraw electoral boundaries is supposed to be carried out once every eight years to cater to development and the increase in the number of voters.The boundary redelineation process was supposed to start late last year for the entire country but floods that ravaged the northeastern states of the peninsula disrupted the plan, forcing the EC to postpone it to this year at a date that has yet to be determined.Once the exercise starts, the EC will have to complete it within two years before the final report on the recommendations for redelineation is submitted to the prime minister, and then tabled in Parliament for approval and finally, presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for endorsement.Despite allegations of manipulation of electoral boundaries and unfair distribution of voters by the EC, electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 believed that redelineation was needed but had said it has to be conducted in a transparent manner according to the Federal Constitution.The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections said that if redelineation was not carried out, past irregularities or distortions would persist and might worsen over time, causing elected representatives serving growing number of electorates to be overburdened.Election analyst and Bersih member Dr Wong Chin Huat had said without redelineation, problems related to gerrymandering (manipulation of electoral boundaries) and malapportionment (unequally sized constituencies) would remain.Already, opposition politicians and civil society groups had cried foul over EC's proposal to redraw electoral boundaries in Sarawak and raise the number of seats by 11, claiming that the exercise had caused inequalities in the sizes of constituencies.Besides the new seats, the EC has also recommended a change of name for one parliamentary and four state constituencies.The proposal to increase seats is believed to be made now due to the impending state elections, which must be held by April next year.There is also speculation that a snap polls in the Borneo state could be held this year.Critics fear that the ruling Barisan Nasional government would use the exercise as a tool to redraw boundaries or increase the number of seats in its favour.However, the EC had said redelineation was needed to balance out parliamentary areas to ensure they did not burden the MPs.It had previously said it was looking at increasing federal seats by about 15% to 20% in its redelineation exercise, with new seats carved out in Selangor, Johor, Perak, Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu.Malaysia practises a first-past-the-post system in elections where the winner takes all and forms the government of the day by having the most number of seats in Parliament, notwithstanding its share of the popular vote. – January 28, 2015.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น