Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari disagrees with the judgment denying his application to challenge the Election Commission (EC) on the redelineation exercise, and hopes his appeal will address the matter.

"My objections were rejected by the EC on the basis that there had been no recommended changes to the borders of the constituencies in question.

"It was on the constitutionality of this omission that I filed an application for judicial review.

"Having perused the grounds of judgment by the learned judge, I am of the opinion that there is sufficient reason to argue in the Court of Appeal that the learned Judge may have erred in the interpretation of the law.

"In particular, I dispute his view that the recommendation published in the gazette was merely a proposal and is therefore not justiciable at this juncture," said Zairil Khir in a statement today.

The DAP parliamentarian filed his appeal on March 30.

On Oct 13 last year, Zairil represented a group of 148 fellow voters of the Bukit Bendera parliamentary constituency to file objections against the EC's redelineation proposals for Penang, published on Sept 15, 2016.

Penang High Court judge Lim Chun Fong dismissed the application saying a judicial review cannot commence until after the Parliament has decided on the EC's recommendations.

"By filing this appeal, I hope that the Court of Appeal would review and reconsider the constitutional duties of the EC, and to decide on how these duties can be subjected to judicial supervision.

"A decision by the Court of Appeal is necessary as there are points of public importance raised by the learned judge," said Zairil.

Inexplicable disparities

The MP's application sought to review the EC's omission to redelineate the parliamentary seat of P048 Bukit Bendera (71,767 voters), which he said had 1.43 times more voters than its neighbouring constituency of P049 Tanjong with only 50,324 voters.

"As there are no logistical or geographical reasons for such a disparity, there is no reason why they were not redelineated to achieve approximate parity as stipulated by Part VIII of the Federal Constitution," he said.

Zairil also cited the N23 Air Putih state seat within Bukit Bendera, which has only 12,752 voters compared to its neighbour N34 Paya Terubong, "which happens to be the largest in Penang with 41,707 voters".

"This corresponds to a huge disparity of 3.27 times. Similarly, there do not appear to be any compelling logistical or geographical factors to support such an omission.

"My objections were rejected by the EC on the basis that there had been no recommended changes to the borders of the constituencies in question.

"It was on the constitutionality of this omission that I filed an application for judicial review," said Zairil.

Many have criticised and challenged the EC's redelineation proposal on various grounds, that it has not only failed to address imbalances in the constituencies, but has worsened various disparities.

Several legal challenges have already been dismissed, including Bersih's and Lembah Pantain MP Nurul Izzah Anwar's.

Presently, there is only one case - brought by the Selangor government - that has yet to be decided.