'If EC can't re-draw constituencies, we can do it'

If the Election Commission (EC) is unable to carry out its constituency re-delineation exercise, which is already due, then civil society will gladly do this in its place, says electoral education group Tindak Malaysia.

Tindak Malaysia founder Wong Piang Yow said this today in response to EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof's statement last month that the EC would not carry out a re-delineation exercise.

This was because, Aziz said, the EC lacked manpower and that its staff were already working on preparing for the 13th general election.

"Our offer to the EC is that if it does not have the resources, give us the budget and we will get it done in six months, with all the necessarily legislation in place," Wong said.

He said this after handing a over a memorandum, together with a Bersih 2.0 team, to the parliamentary select committee on electoral reform at Parliament House this afternoon.

To prove their seriousness, Wong said, "a group of loyal Malaysians" has already drawn up the re-delineation for the constituencies in Selangor.

"We have completed the re-delineation for Selangor to make it all roughly equal. The current average voter size is about 79,000 in the state and we have redrawn it so all 22 (parliamentary) seats are at a 15 percent margin of the average," he said.

"Even so, the average is almost 50 percent more than the national average of 49,000 voters in a parliamentary constituency, meaning that Selangor should, in fact, have 31 to 32 parliamentary seats."

Kapar 17 times 'bigger' than Putrajaya

Tindak Malaysia had last November impressed members of the PSC with its presentation, which had highlighted malapportionment of voters in the country's electoral system.

The group, which had appeared before the PSC as private individuals to maximise their presentation time, had given the Putrajaya and Kapar parliamentary seats as examples.

They went on to show that Kapar has a voter population 17 times that of the Putrajaya.

Wong said he was not aware of the cost of the previous re-delineation exercise carried out by EC in 2003, but that the amount would be sufficient for civil society to carry out the exercise.

Tindak Malaysia, which has joined forces with Bersih 2.0, will also jointly submit another memorandum to the PSC on March 14, to specifically address the issue of gerrymandering and malapportionment.