KUALA LUMPUR — Kuching City Member of Parliament Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen urged the Election Commission (EC) to strictly adhere to constitutional principles and allow sufficient time for public scrutiny in the process of redelineation of constituencies in Sarawak.
The DAP MP said that while he generally supported the proposal to increase the number of seats, the process must adhere to the provisions relating to the distribution of seats, area interests and local relations to ensure that the interests of all Sarawakians are protected.
“The Federal Constitution, under Subsection 2(c) of the Thirteenth Schedule, requires that the number of voters in each constituency should be approximately equal, with the exception of rural areas that face geographical constraints.
“Historically, this has meant that the maximum to minimum ratio has been 2:1 (i.e. rural areas can have as few as half the number of voters as urban areas). “However, what we are witnessing today is an extreme imbalance in the distribution of voters,” he said in a statement here today.
Therefore, he urged the EC to act independently, reject any pressure from any political party and comply with the demands of the Constitution, including reducing the voter ratio gap, avoiding manipulation of constituency boundaries and providing sufficient time for public participation, rather than a short period of four months.
Yii claimed that the current disparity was excessive, referring to the Miri parliamentary seat which has 149,441 voters and Igan (29,132) which is a ratio of about 5:1 while at the State Assembly level, Senadin has 73,430 voters compared to Gedong (10,380) making the ratio 7:1.
He also questioned why Bandar Kuching, which has almost the same number of voters as Petra Jaya, is not expected to get an additional seat when Petra Jaya has the potential to get two seats.
While the Constitution allows for “area importance” for large and difficult-to-access rural constituencies such as Hulu Rajang and Baram, this should not be used as an excuse to over-represent smaller areas.
“The provision for ‘area importance’ in rural areas depends on two factors, namely geographical size and difficulty in reaching voters.
“Therefore, in my view, areas such as P216 Hulu Rajang (equivalent in size to Pahang), P220 Baram (larger than Perak), and N64 Baleh, N65 Belaga, N66 Murum (larger than Kedah) have a legitimate reason to receive over-representation because these areas deserve it,” he said.
Yii also said that although P207 Igan is only one-third the size of Negeri Sembilan, it has fewer voters than Hulu Rajang, Baram, Selangau, Bintulu and Kapit – all of which are larger in terms of area and number of voters.
As for N26 Gedong, he said it was a clear example of over-representation because almost half of the 82 areas in Sarawak have larger areas and more voters than Gedong.
Pulai MP Suhaizan Kayat urged the EC to correct the imbalance in voter distribution by setting a clear principle that the number in the largest parliamentary area cannot exceed twice as many as the smallest constituency.
The Amanah MP said the difference in the number of voters between the parliamentary constituencies is currently very significant.
He gave the example of the Bangi parliamentary constituency which had 246,795 voters in the 2022 General Election which saw DAP’s Syahredzan Johan win with a majority of almost 70,000 votes while Kota Raja was won by Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu with a majority of 73,998 votes.
“Across the Klang Valley, there are many constituencies that are very densely populated with voters such as Titiwangsa, Shah Alam, Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Wangsa Maju and Ampang… these constituencies are usually won by Pakatan Harapan and sometimes by UMNO/Barisan Nasional.
“On the other hand, there are much smaller seats such as Sik in Kedah and Jeli in Kelantan where PAS or Perikatan Nasional candidates are contesting in constituencies with less than 50,000 voters in total,” he said.
He said the situation showed that there was an unbalanced distribution of votes and that the EC needed to address it because it was unfair to “punish” urban voters by making their votes less valuable than voters in much smaller areas.
“The truth is, this imbalance has long been built into our electoral system… past mistakes need to be corrected in the delimitation process currently underway this year.
“This correction needs to be done immediately so that the changes can take effect before the next general election,” he said.
— BERNAMA
