In Easter message, Guan Eng decries 'electoral apartheid'

GE14 | Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today decried what he called “electoral apartheid” as a result of the Election Commission's redelineation exercise.

"What the EC has done is not only to do BN’s bidding to help it win the next general election, but also adopt a dangerous formula to further deepen the racial divide amongst Malaysians.

"By lumping racial groups in one constituency instead of mixed seats, the EC is adopting the BN racist formula, where voters see themselves as Malays first, Chinese first, Indian first, Iban first or Kadazan first instead of Malaysians first," Lim said in his Easter weekend message.

In an interview with the New Straits Times on Thursday, EC chairperson Mohd Hashim Abdullah had said that the redelineation proposal drew constituency boundaries along racial lines, in the interest of keeping ethnic groups together.

Besides dividing the races, Lim said the redelineation exercise also violated the principle of “one person one vote” because of how opposition supporters had been placed together in certain constituencies.

However, despite this, he remained optimistic about the coming election.

"DAP believes that Malaysians can still prevail by uniting against those who wish to divide us, against those who wish to build walls and against those who wish to frighten us to hate each other instead of loving each other. Happy Easter Weekend," he said.

The redelineation report was passed in Parliament on Wednesday and gazetted the next day. -Mkini