Selangor 'deeply affected' by redelineation exercise, court told

The Selangor government told the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today that they are one of the states "deeply affected" by the Election Commission's redelineation exercise. 

Senior counsel and former Malaysian Bar president Cyrus Das said the uneven distribution of voters has given BN the advantage in the coming general election.

“An area like Sri Andalas, which is multiracial, is now dominated by one race only following the redelineation.

“Six voting districts in the Selayang parliamentary constituency have been shifted to Bukit Lanjan, and those stations are pro-Pakatan Harapan. The alienation of the six voting parliamentary seats would help improve BN's performance in the coming election,” Cyrus said.

He said the six seats are Petaling Jaya Utara, which has now become Damansara (from 84,456 voters to 150,439 voters), Serdang, which has been renamed Bangi (from 139,013 to 146,168 voters) and Klang (98,285 to 141,2750 voters), as well as Petaling Jaya Selatan (78,404 to 129,363 voters), Subang (101,603 to 128,330 voters) and Kota Raja (110,082 to 121,126 voters).

Cyrus, along with another former Bar president Ambiga Sreenevasan, acted the Selangor government before Judicial Commissioner Azizul Azmi Adnan.

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

Issue of gerrymandering

Cyrus also touched on the issue of gerrymandering.

The thrust of the argument is based on four grounds, that the EC had breached Section 2(c) and Section 2(d) of the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution by gerrymandering, malapportionment and causing inconvenience to the voters.

Secondly, the senior lawyer said, EC failed to use the current electoral roll, as required under Section 3 of the Thirteenth Schedule.

They further argued that the electoral roll used by EC was defective as there are 136,000 voters whose names were not in the roll, and there was violation of natural justice and legitimate expectation, due to inadequate information and insufficient particulars.\

Justice Azizul fixed Jan 24 for further submissions and extended the stay on all local inquiries by the EC on both federal and state seats in Selangor.

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

It wants 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 wants the EC compelled to publish a new notice with new recommendations that “truly” follow the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.- Mkini