Need for balanced representation

THE country’s laws clearly stipulate that the redelineation exercise of electoral boundaries can only start eight years after the last one.

The Election Commission has a further two years after the eight-year-period to carry out the exercise in areas where it feels it is necessary to redraw boundaries.This can lead to the emergence of new seats and the renaming of previous ones based on voter numbers and distribution.

The last redelineation exercise for states in the peninsula was implemented in 2018 and this means the earliest the next redelineation can start is in 2026.So, this means the exercise in the peninsula will only be completed in 2028, at the earliest.

The redelineation exercise for Sarawak was last done in 2015 and for Sabah in 2017.

Re-drawing electoral boundaries after the eight-plus-two-years where necessary as provided in the law is a fair deal due to increase in population and people’s mobility, but there have been calls recently for it to be carried out sooner this time around.

This comes following the implementation of Undi18 in 2021 after Parliament approved the Federal Constitution lowering voting age from 21 to 18.

Also introduced was another piece of legislation allowing automatic registration of voters.

When this happened, there were more than a million new voters who were able to exercise their constitutional right in the 15th general election (GE15).

This amendment led to a massive spike in the number of voters in all constituencies.

Seremban parliamentary seat, for example, saw the number of voters surge to almost 160,000 compared to only 102,300 in 2018.

Now, Seremban is also one of the very few parliamentary constituencies which had six state seats which are almost all being urban and densely populated.

The biggest state seat of Nilai alone has 42,168 voters, which is even higher than the population of some parliamentary constituencies.

Sikamat has 32,343 voters, Lenggeng (27,386), Lobak (23,193), Ampangan (20,992) and Temiang (13,085).

And these are all urban areas that have continued to see an increase in population with more people moving in.

Election analyst Dr G. Manimaran agrees that there is a pressing need for redrawing of electoral boundaries.

“We cannot deny that there is indeed a need to split some constituencies due to the increase in the number of voters over the past two years, but it needs to be through legislative provisions.

“Almost all parliamentary and state assembly seats have experienced an increase in the number of voters of between 20% and 50%, and some even more since the Undi18 policy was implemented,” he said.

As an example, he cited the Bangi parliamentary seat in Selangor with the highest number of voters (303,430) during GE15 compared to just 178,000 during GE14.

“If we take into account the average number of voters for the 222 parliamentary seats is between 33,000 to 303,000 people, then it is time for the EC to look again at the number of voters for each area.

“This includes state assembly seats. We need a reasonably balanced position, not too many and not too few voters,” he said, adding that the Bangi parliamentary seat, for example, could be easily split into two or maybe even three seats.

Thus Undi18 effectively means that elected representatives now have a mammoth task to keep constituents happy.

Voter expectations are even greater in a place like Seremban, which attained city status only in January 2020.

This was possible only with the merger of the Seremban and Nilai municipal councils.

Prior to the merger, the Seremban Municipal Council had 24 local councillors whose duties were to look into the day-to-day issues affecting the people, which included uncollected garbage, broken drains, flash floods, poorly maintained roads and infrastructure.

The Nilai Municipal Council also had another set of 24 local councillors.

After the merger, the Seremban City Council, however, only had 24 councillors as provided by law as against 48 in the two municipalities previously.

Negri Sembilan local government development, housing and transport committee chairman J. Arul Kumar said this meant that the responsibilities of councillors had doubled.

“The number of councillors has been reduced from 48 to 24.

“Their job has become even more challenging as they now have a bigger area to cover,” he says.

So with only half the number of councillors available but with greater expectations from a growing population, it is no surprise that the city council has been receiving brickbats with some even suggesting that the city status was a mistake.

The city council had been the target of some serious bashing on social media, with one resident recently claiming that Jasin in Melaka and Kluang in Johor were “more presentable” than Seremban.

This begs the question: if the majority of MPs could agree that the Undi18 legislation was necessary, then they should consider bringing forward the next round of the redelineation exercise particularly for the peninsula.

In the case of Seremban, Nilai — the fastest growing area in the state — can be upgraded into a parliamentary constituency with a municipal council managing the area. It will then have its own set of 24 local councillors, who will be able to better serve the ratepayers.

This move should not affect Seremban’s city status, as the population now has no doubt reached the threshold needed.

So, if the redelineation exercise can be completed before GE16, then the citizens’ voices will be better heard in Parliament through an equitable political representation.

This may sound injudicious to some, but it is certainly worth considering as at the end of the day, it is the well-being of the rakyat and democracy that matters.