Bersih tells EC to resign for ignoring Selangor court case

Electoral watchdog says EC's move to publish second delineation proposal while Selangor's judicial review is still being heard is 'unconstitutional and smacks of contempt of court'.

PETALING JAYA: Bersih 2.0 has called on the Election Commission (EC) to resign over its “scandalous” attempt to expedite its “flawed” redelineation proposal.

The EC had yesterday published a second proposal that excluded Selangor from the delineation exercise.

In a statement today, Bersih 2.0 said the EC should respect the judicial review process initiated by Selangor and await the court’s decision.

The electoral watchdog said the second proposal, on display for a month, was unconstitutional and smacked of contempt of court because it had effectively removed Selangor from the “States of Malaya” by excluding the state from its delineation exercise.

By doing this, it said the EC had defied Federal Constitution Article 113(6) and ignored precedents which made it clear that all states of Malaya and the federal territories need to be redelineated at one go.

“The EC cannot have acted on its own. As such, we demand that the Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali and whoever in the Attorney-General’s Chambers responsible for advising the EC to account to the public for the advice.”

It said the EC’s silence could not conceal the shame it had brought upon itself when it tore apart Article 113 and the Thirteenth Schedule in its first proposal, published on Sept 15 last year.

The Selangor suit, it said, had exposed the EC’s blatant and extensive non-compliance with the Thirteenth Schedule.

“Sub-section 2(c) demands apportionment to be approximately equal. Yet the EC proposes vast disparity, with the largest parliamentary constituency, P106 Damansara, having 4.05 times as many voters as the smallest one, P092 Sabak Bernam.

“Sub-section 2(d) demands ‘maintenance of local ties’. Yet the EC proposes to fragment local authorities, with the proposed P107 Sungai Buloh spanning four local authorities and the proposed N41 Batu Tiga spanning three local authorities.

“Sub-section 2(d) demands attention to ‘inconveniences’ caused by boundary changes. Yet the senior federal counsel representing the EC admitted in court that the EC had never considered any unintended consequences of its proposals.”

Bersih 2.0 urged Malaysians to stand up to condemn the EC.

“We must tell them that they are not above the law, the court and the Federal Constitution.” -FMT