PARLIAMENT | Najib Abdul Razak said today the changes recommended in the Report on the Review of Electoral Boundaries will enable elected representatives to deliver their services more efficiently and effectively in their respective constituencies.

The prime minister said they would give the representatives the advantage of enhancing efficiency in the delivery of their services.

“This also dismisses the wrong perceptions and baseless allegations that the recommendations only favour certain quarters,” Najib said when tabling the motion on the review of electoral boundaries in the Dewan Rakyat.

The recommendations proposed by the Election Commission cover Peninsular Malaysia and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, an area of about 132,000 square kilometres.

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Najib drew attention to the fact that the recommendations did not propose any change to the number of parliamentary and state constituencies but only suggested renaming 12 parliamentary and 28 state seats.

He said that based on the EC recommendations, it was difficult to equally divide every parliamentary and state constituency because some rural constituencies differed from one another in terms of topography and demography.

He said this, indirectly, created constraints in terms of communication and transportation.

“That is why the population concentration in urban areas is far higher than in the rural areas.

"Nevertheless, I understand that the EC had tried its best to ease the burden of the elected representatives, especially in the areas with limited communication and transportation facilities.

'Not agreed to by several quarters'

Najib said he was informed that the EC recommendations were not agreed to by several quarters, including from the government itself.

He said the government neither interfered with nor influenced the EC in the discharge of its duties but respected its decisions for the good of all in the interests of the people and country.

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The review of the electoral boundaries was implemented fully in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Constitution and, as such, the government did not propose any changes to be made to the report, he said.

He also said that the EC carried out the review of electoral boundaries in keeping with Clause (2) of Article 113 of the Federal Constitution which stated that there shall be an interval of not less than eight years between the date of completion of one review and the date of commencement of the next.

"The last time that a review of electoral boundaries was approved was in 2003, whereby the constituencies approved were contested in three general elections, the 11th in 2004, the 12th in 2008 and the 13th in 2013,” he said.

Najib said the review was made with the use of the electoral rolls for Peninsular Malaysia and the federal territories that were verified and gazetted on May 13, 2016, and Sept 6, 2016, and which had 11,379,352 electors.

He said it was an increase of 36 per cent or about three million people compared to the last review of electoral boundaries conducted in 2003 which used the electoral rolls verified on Dec 27, 2001, which had 8,347,107 electors.

He said the review of electoral boundaries which began on Sept 15, 2016, had undergone the process of a notice of review, display of recommendations, representations on objections and local investigations.

He also said that the EC received 1,685 representations and 600 of them were subjected to local investigations.

Najib also recorded his appreciation to the various quarters that had been involved in carrying out the review, including the EC staff, Attorney-General’s Chambers, Department of Statistics, Department of Survey and Mapping, the police and the heads of departments and agencies in all the states. - Bernama