‘Impossible’ to give all votes equal value, EC chairman says

The differences in the population densities of the various constituencies make it “impossible” to equalise the power of every vote, Aziz said. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, May 25 ― The Election Commission (EC) has confirmed that its year-end redelineation exercise will involve an increase in federal seats but its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof said it would be “impossible” to guarantee equal value for every vote.

Abdul Aziz cited geographical and logistical concerns with the opposition’s demand for “one man, one vote, one value” but added, however, that the EC would try its level best to give similar weightage to every vote.

“But realistically, how do you make it one man, one vote, one value? I think it is virtually impossible... we can spread the weightage here and there but apart from that, it would be too difficult,” he told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

Explaining, Abdul Aziz said the population size and physical landscape in every constituency differs in every state, rendering it even more difficult for the EC to adhere to the opposition’s demand for equal value for every vote.

The opposition blamed its recent electoral losses on gerrymandering by the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), claiming the vastly unequal value of votes across constituencies nationwide had allowed a government with minority support to rule the majority.

In the just-concluded May 5 polls, BN recaptured federal power with 133 federal seats to Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 89 but lost the popular vote for the first time since 1969, scoring just under 48 per cent of the votes cast to PR’s 51 per cent.

Abdul Aziz went on to cite the differences in the terrains of Borneo’s rugged interiors in Sabah or Sarawak and the crowded metropolitan streets in cities over in the peninsula.

“In Sabah for example, we take Kinabatangan... the size of this one constituency is as big as the entire state of Pahang... but the number of voters are small.

“If we wanted to give the same value to voters in Kinabatangan to voters in Pahang, we would have to enlarge the Kinabatangan constituency to at least three times its size to include more voters.

“But would this be fair? How would the elected representative service his or her constituents in such a large area?” he said.

Abdul Aziz also reminded that in the more remote areas of the country, the lack of basic infrastructure like roads, communication lines, local district offices and other essential amenities, must be considered when the EC draws electoral boundaries.

“In places like Kuala Lumpur... although we have large populations living in small areas, the facilities are good. You cannot compare them to the remote areas of Sabah and Sarawak.

“And we want to make it fair on the elected representatives of the areas so that they can provide good service to the people.

“We don’t want to just force every constituency to have, say, 60,000 voters, for the sake of standardising things... but at the same time, the representative in a rural does not have the same facilities as his peer in the urban areas. It’s not that easy,” he said.

Abdul Aziz said that in the current system, voters are dispersed according to simple categories: rural, semi-urban, small towns and cities.

In terms of vote value, population sizes and boundaries are drawn by matching these categories, he said, to ensure that the value of every vote in one rural seat has the same or similar weightage to votes in another rural seat elsewhere.

“This is how we make it fair... we have to compare city to city, town to town, kampung to kampung. At least that is something.

“But to make it one man, one vote, one value across the board in the whole country, that is impossible,” he said.

Abdul Aziz, however, offered the EC’s commitment to engage with members of civil society groups and political parties when it formally kicks off its redelineation process this year-end, saying the authority was open to ideas from all parties.

He confirmed that if the redelineation involves an increase in the current number of seats, this would require an amendment to the Federal Constitution. There are presently 222 federal and 576 state seats nationwide.

Any amendment to current electoral boundaries will likely come under close scrutiny from all members of Parliament, particularly those from the opposition bloc in PR’s DAP, PKR and PAS.

As a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds parliamentary majority, heated challenges from the opposition bench can be expected in the lower House when the EC’s plans are put to vote.

BN does not have required two-thirds majority in Parliament with only 133 seats to PR’s 89 seats, and will require votes from opposition lawmakers to approve the redelineation.

PR’s elected representatives have already indicated their determination to use their increased numbers in Parliament to ensure the redelineation is conducted fairly.

The EC recently said that the exercise will be kicked off by year-end after the six-month process to hear election petitions are completed. The petitions must be filed within 21 days after the results of the election are gazetted.

The Federal Constitution prohibits a redelineation exercise from being conducted within eight years of the last. The EC last redrew constituency lines in 2003.

Abdul Aziz said once the redelineation exercise is kicked off, the EC has up two years to complete it.