Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has expressed shock at the contents of the embargoed report on the Election Commission's (EC) redelineation exercise.

Parliament Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia’s decision to embargo the report until next Wednesday (March 28) has also courted flak from Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali, who labelled the move a “betrayal of parliamentary democracy”.

Lim claimed that the EC had failed to follow the recommendations proposed by the state.

"I cannot reveal anything now as the report has been embargoed. I did not go to Parliament yesterday as I had to attend the state executive council meeting.

"In some states, the EC has not followed the state's recommendations at all," Lim told a press conference today.

He said such a move by the EC raises questions about its credibility and independence, adding that the BN ministers are bound to defend the EC's actions.

"The EC must explain why it has decided to do that, to not follow the recommendations proposed by states in the redelineation exercise," said Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general.

Embargo denies voters’ rights

Meanwhile, Azmin said Pandikar’s move to embargo the report denied Malaysians their rights to information about their voting districts.

“The speaker’s decision to embargo the EC report on the redelineation of electoral boundaries in Peninsular Malaysia is a gross betrayal of 25 million Malaysians and our parliamentary democracy.

“Withholding this is nothing more than an act of sheer arbitrariness... all voters in Malaysia have a right to know if their voting district has been changed, since it affects both their identity and their political destiny.

“Therefore it is a violation of their constitutional rights,” Azmin said in a statement today.

Like Lim, Azmin criticised the contents of the report, accusing the EC of dividing the populace along racial lines through its redelineation exercise.

“This is a direct assault on the culture of multi-ethnic harmony that is an essential part of Malaysia's identity,” he added.

The report earned criticism from across the political divide as well, with Gerakan Youth Chief Andy Yong questioning why it failed to reduce malapportionment among constituencies.

"It is reported today that the contents of the embargoed report by EC is not using the latest proposal; if this is true, something is not right.

"The law does not stipulate that the EC must use the first proposal, but if the second one is finalised, it should be used.

"Legally, redelineation should reduce malapportionment but it is apparent the proposal shows otherwise,” said Yong, who presently serves as the BN component party’s Bukit Bendera coordinator.

Questions have been raised if the last date of the embargo, which is the same day that the EC’s redelineation exercise will be tabled for first reading in Parliament, was to avoid several cases brought to court against the EC exercise.

The case initiated by activist Ivy Josiah and three others will be heard on March 23 while another suit by activist Maria Chin Abdullah and 107 others has been fixed on March 28 - the expiry of the embargo. 

The Selangor government is also appealing the EC’s redelineation exercise while last Friday, the Penang government sought leave from the Federal Court to challenge the exercise after it was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. 

Both Lim and Azmin are part of Pakatan Harapan, which is upset that the EC submitted its report to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on March 9, without completing its hearing on objections during local inquiries.

Today, soft copies of all three volumes of the report had been leaked online, on a file-sharing website where the report was uploaded.