Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Aziz Yusof today denied the commission was involved in diluting Malay-majority seats through gerrymandering.

EC was forced to defend itself after an Umno minister inadvertently put the commission in an awkward position following his accusation against former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad of diluting Malay-majority seats during his rule.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's outburst was a counter-attack on Mahathir's broadside against the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

However, Aziz ( left in picture ) said the conversion of Malay-majority seats into mixed seats, as alleged by Ismail Sabri, was not done through gerrymandering.

Instead, he said, the changing of constituencies can be done by voters changing their addresses, which is out of EC's hands.

"Gerrymandering does not arise in our redelineation.

"That change (conversion to mixed seats) is not done by EC; it is dependent on where voters register themselves, based on the address on their identity card.

“If voters want to change to another constituency, they change the address on their identity card and EC cannot stop them if the National Registration Department approves the change," Aziz added.

However, he said, if objections are made, the voter would need to go through an inquiry process where EC would identify if the address change is indeed his or her place of residence.

He argued that Ismail Sabri's remarks were a matter for political parties.

"EC does not want to interfere in the affairs of political parties," Aziz said, stressing that the redelineation exercise goes according to law.

"On whether there is gerrymandering or not, that is only a perception of certain quarters.

"The (redelineation) process we conduct is according to law. We get feedback, hold inquiries and meetings and so forth," he added.

Proof that EC is Umno's 'lackey'

However, electoral reform group Bersih countered that comments from Ismail Sabri and Abdul Aziz proved that the EC is just a ‘lackey’ of Umno.

“Bersih is not in any way surprised by the revelation as there has always been an UMNO-BN policy of using government agencies to continue their undemocratic rule,” it said in a statement today.

They said Abdul Aziz's reply - that it is out of EC’s hands - is “weak and lame” and “EC will never be independent as long as Umno is in charge.”

The coalition said Ismail Sabri’s accusation against Dr M indicates the government is trying to pre-determine the outcome of the next general elections via the EC's ongoing poll boundary re-drawing.

"This development might mean that gerrymandering will again be a tactic used in the current delineation exercise to pre-determine the outcome of the 14th general election.

"(This is because) Umno and other major BN allies are embroiled in crises, with public support for the prime minister and Umno president at an all-time low," it said.

Bersih said they would  continue to educate voters of their rights and warned they would sue the EC if there were attempts to subvert the federal constitution.