MP SPEAKS The Election Commission’s constituency redelineation proposal is the worst case of gerrymandering in all five redelineation exercises in the nation’s history.

Under the proposed redelineation, the parliamentary quota in the peninsular states - which is the average number of electors per parliamentary constituency in the peninsular states, derived from dividing the total electorate by the total number of parliamentary constituencies in all the peninsular states - is 68,814.

The parliamentary quota for each state in peninsular Malaysia is as follows:

With Damansara in Selangor redelineated as the largest constituency with 150,439 voters, it is 218 percent bigger than the parliamentary quota of 68,814.

This will the biggest and undemocratic electorate disparity compared to the four previous redelineations.

In 2003, Johor Bahru was the parliamentary constituency with the biggest electorate (90,187) representing a 94 percent deviation from the parliamentary quota of 46,498.

In the 1994 redelineation, there was a 49 percent deviation (Klang’s 69,422 voters to the parliamentary quota of 46,558), 69 percent maximum deviation in the 1984 redelineation (Petaling Jaya’s 67,846 voters to the parliamentary quota of 40,139) and 65 percent maximum deviation in the 1974 redelineation (Ipoh’s 51,569 to the parliamentary quota of 31,198).

This is why all the following 13 “super” parliamentary seats redelineated with more than 100,000 voters should be redrawn so that they do not have more than 100,000 voters.

The Election Commission owes the Malaysian electorate a full explanation why the present exercise is even more unfair and undemocratic in disregarding the “one man, one vote, one value” principle than the previous four constituency redelineations.

LIM KIT SIANG is DAP’s Gelang Patah MP.