A war of words between the Election Commission (EC) and DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock continued today with the latter rebutting claims that he did not submit counter-proposals to the commission for consideration.

Kerk ( photo ) was responding to a New Straits Times report which quoted EC chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman as saying that Kerk had not come up with a counter-proposal which can grant a representation and enable the commission to conduct a local inquiry.

When contacted, the Kota Melaka member of Parliament expressed surprise at Abdul Rashid's remarks and stressed that he had not o­nly argued in favour of the EC's original proposal for his constituency but also added other suggestions.

"I did, of course, give suggestions of my own but I had wanted a meeting to raise other issues with the EC chairperson. What did Abdul Rashid mean by counter-proposals?" he said.

Kerk first requested for a meeting with Abdul Rashid o­n Feb 24 following a Sin Chew Daily report which quoted the EC chairperson as saying that political parties and non-governmental organisations could meet with him to argue their case if they felt that the commission had been biased towards the government.

However, the Kota Melaka MP did not receive a response from the EC chairperson.

Info leak?

Kerk further criticised Abdul Rashid for not directly responding to his request for a meeting.

"(Abdul Rashid) cannot give o­ne statement like that and brush aside everything that I had raised. He should be prepared to face me if he issued a challenge," he said.

Questioned about the other issues he had wanted to raise with Abdul Rashid, Kerk said he was concerned over how several BN leaders had appeared to know the EC's redelineation proposals even before they were unveiled last August.

"For example, o­ne exco member had said that there would be an increase of o­ne parliamentary seat and three state seats for Melaka even before the EC displayed their proposals. How did he know this?

"(Works Minister) Samy Vellu ( photo ) also said before the display of the proposals that there would be a new seat at Chenderoh and that it would affect 2,000 of his voters. How did he come to know about this?" asked Kerk, adding that he had read of the BN leaders' remarks in the newspapers.

On his challenge to meet with all seven EC commissioners, Kerk said he submitted a memorandum to the assistant of EC secretary Wan Ahmad Wan Omar this morning in Putrajaya.

"All seven commissioners were out so I passed the memorandum to (Wan Ahmad's) assistant," he said.

Kerk stressed he had given the commissioners o­ne week to respond to his request, failing which, he would consider other options such as a royal appeal.

"The commissioners were appointed by the King so I may appeal to the King," he added.

The DAP leader announced his intention to seek appointment with all seven commissioners o­n Monday after his attempts to meet with Abdul Rashid met with

little success.

Correct guesses

Contacted later, Wan Ahmad confirmed that no local inquiries will be held anymore for the Kota Melaka constituency as the commission had already made its final decision after considering the proposals by the Melaka state government.

"There have been a proposal (by Kerk) but the EC has decided not to carry out a local inquiry as a decision has been made to maintain the (current plan) which was decided in October," he said.

Questioned about allegations of bias against the EC, Wan Ahmad merely said that was the opinion of others.

"It seems that what (Abdul Rashid) has said o­n the matter is final. Anyone not satisfied with the proposals can raise the matter in Parliament."

Responding to the point raise by Kerk o­n why BN leaders were aware of certain redelineation proposals before they were made public, Wan Ahmad said o­ne reason for it could be that the BN leaders had merely made an educated "guess".

"But this is normal because in our preparations, we consider various recommendations for the redelineation. The EC also investigates and discusses some of these issues with the government in power because it is the government who must eventually raise the proposals for debate in Parliament," he said.

Regarding Kerk's latest challenge to meet with all seven of the commission's members, Wan Ahmad said the matter will be left to the discretion of the EC chairperson.

'Multi-racial constituency'

In his earlier memoranda seeking an appointment with Abdul Rashid, Kerk had expressed dissatisfaction over amendments made to the Kota Melaka seat redelineation following protests by the Melaka state government.

According to yesterday's NST report, Abdul Rashid had said that the changes had been made because the Melaka state government had made a "reasonable" counter-proposal for a "multi-racial constituency".

The EC is currently carrying out local inquiries following the second round of public feedback to their proposals.

The finalised redelineation of the electoral boundaries, expected by the end of this month, will come into force in time for the next general election, due before November 2004.