Activist Haris Ibrahim is going to court to compel the Election Commission (EC) to provide details of its redelineation exercise for all constituencies.

His application to compel the EC to furnish the information is being heard at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today. This is the first such challenge against EC in peninsular Malaysia. There are other challenges or protests to redelineation made in Sarawak , where PKR has filed an application.

The former Bersih 2.0 steering committee member had filed an originating summons in January this year seeking declaratory relief on the EC to publish its proposed new boundaries.

At present, redelineation details are limited only to voters from the relevant constituency.

For Haris, whose constituency is Petaling Jaya Selatan, the current practice by EC means he does not have access to details of electoral boundary redrawing of other constituencies.

Haris told Malaysiakini that as a voter, if he wanted to check other constituencies such as Pulai in Johor or Sabak Bernam in Selangor, he would have to physically travel to those areas.

The leader of the Asalkan Bukan Umno movement said if India can digitise such information for its 600 million voters including providing maps of the redelineation, the Malaysian EC has no excuse.

"To make matters worse, if people want to object (to the boundary redrawing details), they have to get 100 people in the constituency to protest the re-delineation and this objection has to be done within 30 days after EC displays it.

"How can Malaysians mount or check other constituencies within that short period?" he asked.

Haris is represented by lawyers Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Sreekant Pillai, while ‎senior federal counsel Suzana Atan, Shamsulbol Hassan and Azizan Md Arshad is appearing for the EC.

‘Constitution stipulates voters should be equal’

Malik submitted today that access to information including for the redelineation is a right as stipulated in the Sivarasa Rasiah case, and it is not necessary for the country to have a Freedom of Information Act.

In this case, he added that the Thirteenth Schedule of the federal constitution stipulates that every constituency has to be at least of equal number.

“However, we do not find this if we compare the constituency of Puchong and say, Putrajaya, which is next to it. This lack of information which is not made accessible to the public has created problems for people like Haris to file a protest,” he said.

Putrajaya has more than 15,791 voters compared to Puchong which has 107,000 voters.

Malik said his client is not seeking an extension of the 30-day protest period but access to information of other constituencies to make sure there is no wide disparity.

Haris, he added, has written to the EC to seek or buy maps of its proposed redelineation in various constituencies, only to be told by the EC that he had to visit each of the 222 parliamentary constituencies to get the information.

“The information should be made accessible to everyone as a registered voter, and the EC should not be imposing limits for people to file objections within the stipulated period,” he said.

Haris is seeking a declaration that the EC provide information on the voters staying here in the country or overseas for them to make objections to the redelineation exercise, and the publication of such information can be downloaded in a digital format or printed with a nominal fee paid.

Suzana said Haris has no locus standi to initiate the action and the application is premature.

Justice Asmabi Mohamad has fixed May 6 to deliver her decision on the matter.