The Election Commission (EC) this afternoon refused to give details of the public hearing concerning objections from Mambong voters regarding the creation of the Serembu state seat.

“It is tidak menang, tidak kalah (a no win-no lose situation),” said EC state director Takun Sunggah, in commenting on the public hearing.

Takun ( left ) added that the result of the enquiry would be published on the second display, but refused to give further details on the matter.

The voters from Mambong had objected to 23 polling districts that were to be moved out from the existing Bengoh state constituency, to a new proposed Serembu state seat.

They were among 64 other complaints against the proposed Sarawak electoral boundary re-delineation exercise, which would increase the state assembly seats from 71 to 82.

 

The notice to increase the seats was published on Jan 15, which the Sarawak PKR claimed to have lacked numerous details and had thus brought the case to the Kuching High Court.

 

On Feb 17, the court allowed leave for their application to strike out the whole exercise, as the party considered it “null and void”.

“We object to the shifting of these polling districts although it has brought the voter population of proposed Mambong (originally Bengoh) down from 24,655 voters during the GE13 to 16,803; this number is still higher than the state average of voters, which is 13,526 (24.23 percent higher than the state average),” Sarawak PKR Mambong division secretary Philip Ayan told the EC.

'Internal malapportionment'

 

Representing the voters in the area, he added: “There is an internal malapportionment within this constituency with the state seat of Serembu having only 9,677 voters, compared with the other proposed state seats of Mambong (16,803) and Tarat (16,374).

“The average of 42,854 voters is 14,284 per state seat for the Puncak Borneo parliamentary seat,” he noted.

 

These are some of the complaints forwarded by the voters in Mambong.

 

Meanwhile, Sarawak PKR vice-chairperson See Chee How ( right ) emphasised that they would lodge a formal complaint on the short notice of the public enquiries, and ask for a postponement.

He said that his party was not happy with the way the EC has been handling the whole exercise.

“The EC could have their own motive with regard to the hastily-held public enquiries,” he said to media personnel covering the enquiry.

Earlier today, Bersih 2.0 submitted a letter to the state EC to request for a meeting concerning the same issue.

In a previous statement, Bersih had urged the EC to stop its enquiries, pending the outcome of the judicial review on the constitutionality of its re-delineation exercise proposal.

“The EC’s refusal to do so may result in applications of injunction to stop its unwise decision to continue with the scheduled inquiry sessions,” Bersih added.

The next hearing of the judicial review will be held on March 19.

Tomorrow, the EC will hear complaints from voters in Triboh and Tebedu at 2.30pm at the Serian community hall.