LETTER | I would like to make an urgent call to Selangor voters to come out on May 9, 2018 to defeat the gerrymandering done by the Election Commission.

Pakatan Harapan voters should not be complacent, we should not be overconfident that the coalition will definitely win the Selangor state and rule for another five years.

The impact of gerrymandering is wide and far-reaching. If we underestimate the impact of gerrymandering, a number of constituencies, such as Shah Alam, Kapar and Port Klang would likely return to BN.

An example of this gerrymandering, which affects Klang, is as follows:

4,871 voters from the Kota Anggerik state constituency have been transferred to the Klang parliamentary constituency (P110).
3,327 voters from Batu Tiga state constituency have been transferred to Klang.
In total, 8,198 voters from above two constituencies, which was previously under the Shah Alam parliamentary constituency have been added to Klang.
15,848 voters from Meru state constituency have been transferred to Klang.
7,453 voters from Sementa state constituency have been moved to Klang.
9,484 voters from Selat Klang state constituency have been added to Klang.
With the whole Sungai Pinang state constituency being transferred to Klang, as many as 32,785 Kapar parliamentary constituency voters have been added.
In total, 40,983 voters from the Shah Alam and Kapar parliamentary constituencies have been moved to Klang.
Apart from this, a significant portion of voters from Bukit Tinggi and Bandar Botanic, which was previously under the Port Klang state constituency and Klang, have been transferred to the new Sentosa state constituency under the Kota Raja parliamentary constituency.

This gerrymandering exercise would mean that many pro-opposition voters have been redirected into Klang.

The state constituencies of Kota Anggerik, Batu Tiga, Meru, Sementa, Selat Klang have become marginal seats in favour of BN.

The parliamentary seats of Kapar and Shah Alam have also been magically transformed from a turned from pro-opposition into BN-winnable seats by the so-called impartial delineation exercise.

Unfair and undemocratic gerrymandering, multi-cornered fights (with PAS paving the way for that) and the setting of the polling date on a Wednesday would prove to be a powerful weapon for BN, further allowing them to take back two parliamentary seats and five state seats in Klang alone.

Its time that we open our eyes wide enough, so that we see this and not be blinded by propaganda.

I therefore urge Selangor voters to be vigilant of the redelineation exercise, we need 85 percent of voters to turn up to reduce the impact of gerrymandering.

I call upon all Selangor voters especially those from Klang, Kapar and Shah Alam to come out to vote to defeat the dirty tactics of EC and BN.

Show them the people's power.

CHARLES SANTIAGO is the incumbent MP for Klang.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.