Fix electoral map, says Bersih as it warns of spike in voters after amendment

Under the law, a voter, local or state government can challenge the Election Commission’s redrawing of boundaries once in a minimum of eight years.

PETALING JAYA: Praising MPs from both sides of the divide for their show of unity yesterday to bring down the voting age to 18, electoral reforms group Bersih 2.0 today gave a list of other reforms still pending under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

“Bersih 2.0 earnestly hope that such bipartisanship will become a new norm and that laws will be amended and enacted that will strengthen our parliamentary democracy and institutions so that the dream of a new Malaysia can be fully realised,” it said in a statement.

Among the reforms Bersih said the government should embark on is to come up with a more “fair” electoral map to ensure that people are fairly represented.

It said the addition of new eligible voters following the latest amendment would complicate the problem of disproportionate sizes of constituencies.

“The scale of malapportionment of constituencies will now be exacerbated through the lowering of voting age and automatic voters’ registration,” said Bersih.

It also called on MPs to reject the Sabah Redelineation Report, saying it would block redelineation for the next eight years.

Critics say the 2017 Sabah redelineation has extraordinarily large constituencies such as Sepanggar and Sri Tanjong.

Bersih also said the government should review the first-past-the-post system to ensure the outcome of elections is more representative of the country’s diversity.