Three Malay majority state seats held by PKR in Penang appears to be high priority for Umno, as this area saw the largest increase in new voters, claimed Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Lim said the state seats were Batu Maung, Sungai Bakap and Penanti, held by Abdul Malik Kassim, Maktar Shapie and Norlela Ariffin respectively.
"The worst is Batu Maung which has seen an increase of 7,000 voters, followed by Sungai Bakap, 4,000 voters and Penanti," Lim told reporters in Penang today.
Describing the three seats as part of Umno's "hit list", Lim said he was not sure how many new voters are there in Penanti, but the overall situation was "shocking and disturbing".
PKR has only 10 seats in the state legislative assembly, while DAP has 19 and PAS one. The opposition bench has 10 Umno lawmakers.
"The Election Commission's failure to carry out redelineation exercise in Penang has allowed this to happen," he said.
EC told to reply
Lim said this after attending the second public meeting with the EC to express the state government's objection to the commission's failure to carry out a redelineation exercise in the state.
"We were hoping for a reply to the objections we've submitted but so far there is none," Lim said.
"We hope the EC would respond to our objections, and give us reasons why no redelineation was done in Penang," Lim told reporters after meeting EC officials in Penang.
"Give us a reply or this exercise (of meeting the EC) would be an exercise in futility, reduced to a mere formality."
Accompanying Lim at the meeting were state executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo.
On Nov 18 last year, Lim met the EC to express the same grievances on the commission's failure to comply with the Federal Constitution requirement to carry out redelineation exercise.
The Penang administration has submitted its objections to the EC on Oct 14 last year.
Five DAP assemblypersons and three parliamentarians also submitted objections, each supported by 100 constituents, to the EC on Oct 14 but were rejected without them attending a public hearing.
Unequal representation
In his objections, Lim pointed out two major objections including the EC's failure to carry out redelineation for two state constituencies in Penang - Paya Terubong and Air Putih - the latter being Lim's state seat.
He reiterated that the EC failed to redelineate Paya Terubong, which has 41,707 voters and Air Putih, which has only 12,752 voters.
"It is not fair for Paya Terubong to have 3.27 times more voters than Air Putih.
"Without redelineation, the EC has deprived the Paya Terubong voters three representatives. They only have one now," he added.
He said two other parliamentary seats affected were Bukit Gelugor (81,897 votes) and Balik Pulau (49,641).- Mkini
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