Several groups have joined the call for a bipartisan committee on the re-delineation exercise due later this year.
One of them, the Centre for Public Policy Studies' (CPPS), director Ng Yeen Seen (
below) said the disparity in constituency sizes must be addressed.
"With the smallest urban seat having a 15,000 electorate compared to the biggest one with 140,000. it's a lopsided size and such things should not happen," she said when contacted on Thursday.
Therefore, for the coming re-delineation exercise, she said both the government and the opposition need to agree on new constituency boundaries.
Concurring with this was Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) CEO Wan Saiful Wan Jan.
"This is very important because without fair constituency size, any other reform would be almost useless," he said, adding that this is the first concrete step that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak could take in his call for reconciliation.
Both CPPS and Ideas were among the Election Commission (EC)-accredited election observers in the recent polls, contacted by
Malaysiakini for their views on the steps needed to improve the electoral system.
Previously, DAP had called for similar committees and has already set up
its own to study the issue, anticipating the EC recommending an increase in the number of constituencies.
Need for independent body
This would force a dialogue between BN and Pakatan Rakyat, because a super majority is needed to pass the necessary constitutional amendments.
PKR had mooted an independent commission to oversee the task instead, similar to the UK's Boundary Commissions.
Meanwhile, the National Institute for Electoral Integrity chairperson K Shan (
right) said the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform (PSC) should be turned into a permanent body.
He told
Malaysiakini on Thursday that Malaysia does not currently have a body to forwardr ecommendations on the electoral system like in the US.
In the US, he said there is one body to administer the electoral process with a separate council to oversee it and make recommendations.
"But here, we don't have that kind of a mechanism. We have the EC that works purely on administering the election, but with no one to guide them in terms of policies, governance, and best practices," he said.
K Shan said this would also help resolve one of EC's weaknesses, - the lack of engagement with political parties, NGOs, and the public.
He added that the all
22 recommendations of the previous PSC should be implemented, because they were the results of national consultations and should be binding on the EC, and any grievances it may have should have been addressed at its hearings.
The previous PSC was formed in the wake of the 2011 Bersih 2.0 rally and dissolved after six public hearings and tabling of its recommendations in parliament on April 2 last year.
Form and dissolve culture
These included the setting up caretaker government guidelines, ensuring free and fair access to media, studying the implementation of automatic voter registration, and reviewing Malaysia's first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP).
The FPTP system has drawn fire after the 13th general election in which Pakatan Rakyat garnered 51 percent of the popular vote yet still far from having enough seats to form the federal government.
Ng said the public should recognise that this is an inherent flaw in the FPTP system and accept the results, but still consider whether to push for a proportional representation system such as Germany and New Zealand's mixed-member proportional system (MMP), which would be fairer.
She said Malaysia needs to consider whether it is ready for the transition, sounding the warning that it took New Zealand 15 years to implement it.
Meanwhile ,in Germany, among the first to adopt the system, Ng said more than half of its citizens still cannot figure out how it works.
"For smaller parties to survive, for real equal representation, and perhaps more women representatives and people from different voices and different communities to be equally represented in parliament, perhaps a (proportional) representation system is the way forward for democracy to mature in Malaysia," she said.
In most countries with the MMP system, each citizen is entitled to two votes - one for a local representative, and one for a party.
Half the parliament would be filled with local representatives elected voted into office by their constituents.
No quick fix to problems
The other half would be filled by political party appointees until the overall composition of the parliament reflects the percentage of party votes that each party had garnered.
Ng also said the EC should be accountable to parliament to ensure its independence.
Warning that there will be no quick fixes to problems in Malaysia's electoral system, she said, "Once they start reporting to parliament, (improvements) to the rest of the system would follow.
"That must come first. Then any issues about appointments, re-delineation exercise, the voting process... everything will fall in place," she said.
Wan Saiful in his turn pointed out that public distrust of the EC is already beyond repair and it should stop worsening the situation by issuing public statements.
"The EC must show respect for all politicians, especially those elected by the people.
"There have been times when EC members spoke as if the EC is more partisan than the president of political parties.
"In fact, some of the statements sound as if the EC intentionally wants to be provocative. This has to stop immediately because it is not helping the situation," he said.
Thus, he said there is nothing more that EC can do to regain public confidence, and it should change strategy by opting out for working in silence instead.
