Umno has identified several of the newly created parliamentary and state seats as high-risk constituencies, said party vice-president Muhammad Muhd Taib (photo) today.

"The safest constituency for Umno is in Hulu Selangor. Even if the constituency is split into two, we are still confident of winning both. However, new areas like Shah Alam is not 100 percent safe for BN," he told malaysiakini .

Under the Election Commission's new redelineation exercise, Selangor gets an additional five parliamentary and six state seats.

Of the 25 new parliamentary seats proposed nationwide, the highest allocation went to Johor (six seats) while Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu did not receive any new seats.

Correspondingly, of the 59 new state seats that were proposed, Johor received the most again (14 seats). Perlis, Kedah and Terengganu had none while Kelantan got two new state seats.

This prompted PAS leaders to criticise EC and accuse the commission of embarking on the re-delineation exercise to strengthen the ruling Barisan Nasional in most of the states for the coming general election.

However, Taib said nothing will be agreeable to PAS as long as the opposition party fails to differentiate between the duties of the EC and that of the government.

According to the Umno leader, the Klang Valley is developing rapidly especially in areas such as Ampang, Petaling Jaya and Kelang.

"Would one member of Parliament be enough to cater for a constituency with 120,000 people?

" In Selangor, additional parliamentary and state seats are created in places which are fast-developing and with high density," he said.

Wrong assumption

He added it was wrong to assume that the re-delineation exercise only benefitted the ruling party since several Umno leaders, including a menteri besar have voiced their dissatisfaction over the new seats in their respective states.

"There are Umno leaders in Johor who are unhappy with the new distribution of seats. So is the Menteri Besar of Pahang, Adnan Yaakob, who is also not happy with the new parliamentary and state seats in the state," he said.

"If the redelineation exercise is to benefit the ruling party, those Umno leaders should not have complained about it," stressed Taib.

The EC's recommendations, if passed by Parliament, will increase the number of parliamentary seats from 194 to 219 and state seats from 504 to 563 by the next general election scheduled for 2004 which some say could be held as early as next year.

The Federal Constitution provides for a re-delineation exercise to be carried out by the EC every eight years. The last review for Peninsular states and Sabah was done in 1994 while Sarawak was last assessed in 1996.