The new redelineation of constituencies is   unfair and undemocratic, violates the principle of one-man one-vote as well as motivated by  the objective to shore up Barisan Nasional to enable it to retain two-thirds parliamentary majority in next election

(Petaling Jaya, Monday): The  Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that  the Election Commission’s electoral constituency redelineation exercise is fair as it is based on the distribution of the population and denied that the  Barisan Nasional had had a hand in the exercise to favour the ruling coalition.

I am surprised that Mahathir has already “jumped the gun” and formed a considered opinion that the proposed constituency redelineation is fair, when under the Federal Constitution, the Prime Minister would only be called to make a decision whether the Election Commission’s final proposals on the redelineation exercise is fair and acceptable, after the whole process of objections, enquiries,  reviews and  a second round of enquiries are completed, and the final report is submitted to him by the Election Commission and he has to decide whether to  present it to the Dewan Rakyat for approval with or without amendments.

If the Prime Minister has already decided that the draft constituency redelination proposals are fair, the whole process of objections, enquiries, reviews and second round of enquiries as provided in the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution on the redelineation of constituencies have been rendered redundant or will only be a meaningless exercise.

Be that as it may, a cursory look at the draft redelineation proposals  cannot but give the inescapable conclusion that it is unfair, undemocratic, violates the principle of one-man one vote and is motivated by the objective of shoring up the Barisan Nasional to enable it to retain its two-thirds parliamentary majority in the next general election.

This is the only explanation why there is no increase of any parliamentary seat for the four states of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu and why there is the utterly outrageous provision for a parliamentary seat for Putrajaya with only 85 voters.

Malaysia will be an international laughing stock if the next general election is held with 85 voters in Putrajaya electing one MP while 90,187 voters in Johore Bahru also elect one MP (as proposed by the  Election Commission)  – which means that the one vote in Putrajaya is equal to 1,061 votes in Johore Bahru, a totally ridiculous and unthinkable deviation from the democratic principle of one-man one-vote – giving an entirely new meaning to Malaysia Boleh!

(12/8/2002)