EC didn't use latest electoral roll in redelineation exercise, court told

The Selangor government told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today that the Election Commission (EC) did not include the latest electoral roll in carrying out their proposed redelineation exercise.

"The supplementary electoral roll was gazetted in July 2016, whereas it (EC) is using the principal electoral roll from (the last quarter ending) 2015.

"It cannot ignore the supplementary electoral roll," senior counsel and former Malaysian Bar president Cyrus Das argued before Judicial Commissioner Azizul Azmi Adnan.

He pointed out that the EC only proposed the redelineation exercise in September 2016.

Cyrus, along with former Bar president Ambiga Sreenevasan and lawyer Derek Fernandez, acted for the Selangor government.

The EC was represented by senior federal counsel Amarjeet Singh, Suzana Atan and Azizan Md Arshad.

Previously, in court documents, the state government had stated that by using an electoral roll that contained inaccurate and incomplete information, the EC's proposed redelineation in 2016 was invalid.

The Selangor government also argued today that the EC should have considered local ties and inconveniences to local government and authorities before it made its proposal.

"Local ties and inconveniences will be suffered by the state government and local authorities in the redelineation.

"The EC is legally obliged under the Thirteenth Schedule of the Constitution to consider these matters before it proposed (the redelineation exercise) and evidence shows it has not," said fellow counsel Derek Fernandez.

Until now, he said, the EC had yet to provide justification as to how the redelineation process was carried out.

The hearing will continue on Feb 7.

During the last hearing, the court was told that Selangor was one of the states "deeply affected" by the EC's redelineation exercise.

Cyrus had said that the uneven distribution of voters had given BN the advantage in the coming general election.

The Selangor government had filed this judicial review to challenge EC's proposed redelineation exercise.

It wanted the court to declare the EC's Sept 15 redelineation notice, its recommendations, the electoral rolls used in the exercise and the draft constituency plan for Selangor, as null and void.

The state also wanted EC compelled to publish a new notice with new recommendations that “truly” follow the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.- Mkini