EC wants 'one man, one vote' principle included in the Constitution

The Election Commission (EC) will propose to insert the principle of 'one man, one vote' into the Federal Constitution to avoid any possible gerrymandering in constituency redelineation exercises.

"We are making a proposal to imbue in the Federal Constitution with the one man, one vote policy and spell this out clearly in the Constitution," EC chief Azhar Azizan Harun said in an interview with business radio station BFM yesterday.

"God willing, if we are successful at doing that, of course then that will be the law for future redelineation exercises," he said.

However, Azhar pointed out that the problem with a man-made law is that the politicians can change the law.

He noted EC's hand was tight, even when it found disproportionate constituency sizes in the previous redelineation exercise in March 2018.

"There is a transgression of our democratic process, to be quite frank, and it makes a mockery of the one man, one vote policy," Azhar said.

"Having said so, unfortunately, under the Federal Consitution, the redelineation exercise can only be carried out once in every eight years. So we are stuck with that.

"So any exercise for redelineation, for which I may want to carry out now, is arguably and quite clearly unconstitutional," he said.

a resolution to rework the redelineation and all states pass the same resolution in their state legislative assemblies, Azhar added.

Currently, Pakatan Harapan and its ally Warisan have a total of 134 seats in the Dewan Rakyat. They are 14 seats shy of a two-thirds majority needed to pass constitutional amendments.

Collectively, BN and PAS currently have 59 seats. The second-largest opposition block is GPS, with 19 MPs, followed by GBS with three MPs.

Additionally, four independent MPs who were formerly with Sabah BN have said that they are supportive of Harapan. Upko is also in alliance with Warisan. - Mkini