Umno has nothing to do with the Election Commission’s (EC) controversial redelineation proposal, said BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

"We (Umno) have not done (what has been accused)," he said, according to Bernama.

"We are going to gather all protests according to the set guidelines and regulations," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after opening the Pasir Salak Umno division delegates' meeting in Pasir Salak today, which was also attended by its division chief Tajuddin Abdul Rahman.

He said BN will hold a special meeting on Thursday to allow the various component parties to air their views.

He said the meeting will be attended by the secretaries-general of the various BN parties nationwide to discuss any dissatisfaction they have to the proposal before any decision is made to hand their objections to the EC before Oct 14.

"Umno has also requested state Umno liaision committees which have problems (on redelineation) to gather all suggestions or protests and the outcome of a study will be forwarded to EC.

"If we could, we would ask EC to review the redelineation as several Umno divisions are also unhappy, similarly the opposition could also register their dissatisfactions with EC," he said.

'Normal exercise'

Tengku Adnan, who is also Federal Territories minister, said the redelineation of electoral boundaries was a normal exercise held every eight to 12 years, depending on the increase of voters in the country.

EC secretary, Abdul Ghani Salleh had earlier announced the redelineation exercise was conducted according to Clause (2) Article 113 of the federal constitution and amendments to clause (2) article 14 of the Sabah state constitution as gazetted on Aug 18.

According to Abdul Ghani, EC would be displaying the redelineation of electoral boundaries for the peninsula and Sabah for one month starting from Sept 15 to Oct 14.

The proposal has drawn fierce criticism from both side of the political divide for various reasons, from widening the malapportionment of constsituencies to turning mixed constituencies into Malay majority seats, said to benefit Umno.

The Selangor government yesterday announced they will take legal action against the EC for not giving them a satisfactory reply over the methodology used in the redelineation of the state.

Electoral reform coalition Bersih is holding a rally on Nov 19 and has invited politicians from both sides of the political divide to take part in its seven-week nationwide convoy to promote the event.