The Election Commission’s redelineation of Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur will be a particularly bitter pill for MP Nurul Izzah Anwar.

According to The Australian, Nurul said adding the police headquarters Bukit Aman to her constituency puts her face to face with the dark past of her father Anwar Ibrahim’s arrest over his first sodomy case.

His detention at the time led to the infamous “black eye” incident.

“Bukit Aman has such a special place in my heart because that’s where my father was beaten by the former inspector general of police back in 1998,” she was reported as saying.

“He was taken away and we didn’t know where.

“I went to Bukit Aman desperately trying to find him. So can you imagine? I now find myself as an MP representing Bukit Aman,” the Australian daily reported her saying in an article about the controversial redelineation exercise and electoral fraud.

The two-term MP, who defeated Umno's then Lembah Pantai incumbent and heavyweight Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in the landmark 2008 election, said the current move to bulldoze the Election Commission’s highly controversial redelineation through the current parliamentary session was “unacceptable”.

For Lembah Pantai, it would mean an additional 6,000 police votes, which from past experience are expected to benefit the ruling party.

PKR has decried the reshuffling as a move to forcibly wrest the seat back from Pakatan Harapan.

“It’s one thing to lose in an honourable contest but to lose against a government doing this is just unacceptable.

“I can’t even begin to describe how problematic this is, no matter how much support we have.

“There are many other issues in Malaysia but it all comes down to gerrymandering.

“Because if we don’t have free and fair elections, if we allow manipulations and theft, we are going to have the elections stolen from us,” she was reported as saying.

“That’s the story of Malaysia. [...] He’s going to steal the election. We can’t just sit down and complain. We have to do something about it.”

'No Mahathir apologist'

Meanwhile, on the subject of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad now heading the opposition front, Nurul Izzah admitted it was another bitter pill, albeit a necessary one that required putting the past behind.

“It wasn’t easy. I’m glad (Mahathir) is losing his dictatorial ways and embracing reform because we want to make sure Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the last dictator in Malaysia.

“But I am not an apologist for Mahathir’s past.

“Malaysia has been polarised for so long; first under the British, now by race and religion.

“It’s time to come together. We have to walk the talk.”