TINDAKMALAYSIA, a pioneer in putting forward the concept of malapportionment and re-delineation, has several proposals for the Election Commissions (EC) on the re-delineation of Sarawak.
It is also seeking to educate the constituents on what is considered important for a fair election. The last re-delineation exercise was completed by the EC for Sarawak in August 2015 and approved by the Dewan Rakyat towards end-2015.
Therefore, Sarawak is at the cusp of potential re-delineation after the span of eight years and the EC may – at its discretion – choose to carry out another re-delineation exercise in Sarawak from August 2023 after the last re-delineation crossed the eight-year timeline.
“This is an opportunity for Sarawakians to have ARE – Accessible (A), Representative (R) and Equal (E) – constituencies in the state,” TindakMalaysia’s spokesman Danesh Prakash Chacko told FocusM.
The electoral reform advocacy group which has been exploring the re-delineation topic since 2011 has recently decided to launch a microsite to educate all Malaysians on how fair boundaries are drawn and should be communicated.
“We are doing this in view of the re-delineation exercise which has to be carried out for Sarawak,” explained Danesh. “It is important that Sarawakians participate in the re-delineation as part of the democratic process.”
According to Danesh, this is to ensure that the re-delineation does not create massive urban-rural gap, especially when in certain state constituencies such as Senadin in Miri, one state assemblyman has to represent 68 564 voters while Sarawak’s electorate constituency of Gedong which has only 10 067 voters is represented by one assemblyman.
“This is what is known as malapportionment. Essentially, this constitutes a complete disregard of One Person, One Vote, One Value (OPOVOV) which TindakMalaysia is trying to assist the EC to rectify,” he pointed out.
Danesh cited the example of constituencies in Sibu which he said are “highly irregular” and which brought together non-adjacent communities either separated by a river or another constituency to form a new constituency. “This violated local ties,” reckoned Danesh.
As an NGO, TindakMalaysia has been in the forefront to reduce malapportionment where one constituency may comprise 100,000 voters but another constituency has only 10,000 voters.
“We aspire that the Sarawak re-delineation portal will influence stakeholders including the EC and Sarawakians how to make consultations during re-delineation process more meaningful. This will lay the foundations for fair boundaries,” added Danesh.
TindakMalaysia is currently revising its first draft proposal and is scheduled to release on its microsite what it deems as a new fair boundary proposal come February 2024. – Jan 5, 2024
Main pic credit: Pacific Asia Tarvel Association
