Redelineation controversy EC explains itself
The Election Commission today said that, while population size was considered when determining its proposal for new parliamentary and state seats, other factors also came into play, such as the number of voters, the physical area of each constituency and their accessibility.
EC secretary Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said the public has to realise that the commission, in making its revisions, was only allowed to consider the voter population of each area as opposed to the total population.
"The voter population are those aged 21 years and above. In the more developed states, there is a larger number of young people because many families migrate to these states where their children [attend] school," he told malaysiakini .
Wan Ahmad was responding to criticisms that have arisen over the EC's recommendations unveiled last Thursday to redelineate voting constituencies in Peninsular Malaysia states and Sabah.
Among the states that were allotted the largest number of new seats were Johor, Selangor and Sabah while others such as Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah received no new allocation.
The first three states are virtual monopolies of the ruling BN government while the last three favour the opposition.
This trend has led opposition parties to denounce the recommendations as being biased in favour of the Barisan Nasional since BN-dominant states were seen to have been given the largest number of seats while PAS-ruled states were not recommended for any.
In addition, Wan Ahmad said that the redelineation exercise also took into account the physical size of each constituency and its accessibility in terms of communication.
Other considerations
"In rural constituencies, small populations are [spread] over big areas but they still need a people's representative. For example, Kota Kinabalu as compared to Kinabatangan or Klang Valley as compared to Kelantan," he explained.
Wan Ahmad added that this is mainly in consideration of the ability of representatives to communicate with their electorates.
"In some parts of Sabah, the representatives may need to travel by helicopter from one spot to another and that may take half a day. Here, we can just make a telephone call and give instructions," he said.
The EC secretary pointed out that another factor that was considered was the availability of other service providers in each constituency to complement the work of the elected representative.
To illustrate, Wan Ahmad said representatives of more developed constituencies such as Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya may rely on other local authorities such as their respective city and town councils to provide certain services to the population.
"In Selangor, there may be a 70,000-voter population for each constituency because services are provided by various channels. In rural states, these services are mainly provided by the government and this involves the effort of their state or parliamentary representatives," he stressed.
Wan Ahmad reiterated that because of these considerations, it is difficult for the commission to please all members of the public.
However, he said the commission will welcome counter-proposals from any dissatisfied parties if their recommendations are made based on reasonable justifications backed by valid explanations.
"We may receive complaints from some parties but they may be to their own benefit. Therefore, we think our recommendations are better because they take into account various factors," he added.
When asked, Wan Ahmad said the EC has not received any counter proposals.
"All that we have read is what is reported in the press," he added.
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