COMMENT First of all, thank you for clicking on the title. I'm glad the word 'delineation' did not scare you away since the topic is widely perceived as something technical and complicated.

Now, give me a chance to break it down to something simple, something understandable by a layperson.

But before that, I want to remind you... about the glorious days when our fellow Malaysians flooded the city in yellow. Yes, the glorious days when we were all hyped up about reforming our country's electoral system.

Unfortunately, this hype cannot be seen when the word 'delineation' appears.

So, promise me....pay attention to what I've got to say. Toothpicks are allowed for the use of keeping your eyelids wide apart.

So what is delineation? It simply refers to the drawing of electoral boundaries by the Election Commission (EC). Yes, that includes boundaries for parliamentary and state assembly seats, as well as the voting districts. Sounds familiar eh?

What are the differences ? Well, you put some voting districts together you get a state assembly seat; you put some state assembly seats together and you get a parliamentary seat.

You put all the parliamentary seats together and you get... Parliament or the Dewan Rakyat. You get your voice heard by the government.

So... what is all this fuss on delineation about?

Our Federal Constitution provides certain guidelines as to how delineation should be done. First example, value of each vote ought be approximately equal, with exceptions for rural constituencies.

But what amounts to 'approximately equal'? Well, the answer is... I don't know. Why? Because the capping provision in our constitution was removed in 1973.

Bigger voting area means less vote value

So, as for now, there are no statutory nor constitutional limitations on the percentage on how far the number of voters in each constituency is allowed differ from its state average.

You might be scratching your head, thinking why does this matter? Well, imagine the election of a monitor in a class with 10 students, in order for your choice of candidate  to be elected. All he or she needs to win are six votes.

Now, imagine your class has expanded to 40 students. For your choice of candidate to come into power, he or she needs to get a minimum of 21 votes. In simple terms, the value of each vote in the bigger class is significantly smaller.

One question: why should it be easier for students in class A to get their choice of candidate elected than students in class B? Why should RM1 be allowed to buy a kilo of rice in shop A but only half a kilo of rice in shop B next door?

If you've understood what has been written above so far... congratulations! You've just nailed down the cheat of 'malapportionment'!

Yes, this is currently happening in the Sarawak redelineation exercise ('re' as in the exercise would be  repeated after not less than 8 years from its previous exercise).

For example, Batang Sadong is approximately 45 minutes drive away from Bandar Kuching but the number of voters in Bandar Kuching is close to four times of that in Batang Sadong.

So what's the effect of malapportionment? Well the answer is, certain party would get a higher number of votes but would win a smaller number of seats, and vice-versa.

Now that the first cheat of delineation is unlocked, stay tuned for Part 2, tomorrow.

P/s: To find out what you can do about this, check out this site: https://dart.bersih.org/

Part 1: Delineation - in the words of a 19-year-old

Part 2: How our electoral boundaries are drawn

JEAN SIOW is a second year law student who is currently an intern at Bersih 2.0.