The Dewan Rakyat today passed the motion to accept new electoral boundaries despite a walkout by opposition parliamentarians in protest of the alleged failure of Barisan Nasional leaders to respond to their objections.

The motion was passed with 144 votes out of a total of 194, at about 5.30pm - just moments after the opposition walkout.

'Evasive' Rais

At an immediate press conference, PAS vice-president Dr Hassan Ali (photo) said opposition MPs took the action in protest of the failure of the government to respond to their objections to the redelineation plans.

"The (Minister in the Prime Minister's Department) Dr Rais Yatim, during his winding-up speech, did not answer the questions that I had raised in relation to the criteria, factors and rationale used in the redelineation exercise," he said.

Hassan said Rais' replies were evasive and also failed to address the points that he raised in his speech yesterday relating to the boundaries for several constituencies.

"We did our research and we have a panel to work o­n this so we know what we are talking about. It is very unfair that we got such (vague) responses," he said.

Another opposition parliamentarian, DAP secretary-general and Kota Melaka MP Kerk Kim Hock echoed Hassan's disappointment, saying that several matters he raised were not answered satisfactorily by Rais.

Kerk (photo) pointed out that the EC's proposals had violated the 'one man, o­ne vote' principle and failed to abide by the rule of thumb that the largest number of seats should go to states with the highest number of voters.

"In Kedah and Terengganu, the voter averages were also higher than the Parliament quota," he noted.

According to Kerk, the changes in electoral boundaries for his constituency, Kota Melaka, were intended to minimise his chances of retaining the seat.

"I believe the Melaka Chief Minister (Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam) intends to destroy DAP in Melaka. The EC did not have sufficient reasons to accept (virtually) all the suggestions presented by the Melaka government. Another 113 persons presented their objections but the EC did not respond to them," he stressed.

"It is not a matter of winning or losing. What we want is fairness. We have to register our protest."

'Judge for yourself'

At a press conference later, Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi criticised the opposition for "making a political issue" out of the vote.

"All speeches (to debate the motion) have been made so they wanted to find reasons to oppose the proposalsThey had to walk out to create an impact.

"They were not happy with the motion and accused us of rushing to pass it. But if we had waited, they would have questioned why we waited to table the motion," he said.

Asked to comment o­n the opposition leaders' claims that their objections were not answered, Abdullah said, "You heard (Rais). I was there too."

Rais, who was also present at the press conference, said to reporters, "You judge for yourselves."

Further asked if the walkout reflected badly o­n the motion, Abdullah said "it does not matter" since the motion was passed with the required majority of votes.

"We decide o­n the basis of the number of votes that we need in order to get the motion passed and that was done. If all the votes come from BN, it's all right. The majority has spoken and made the decision."

Umno too objected

Commenting o­n the Election Commission's disclosure that some 70 percent of the objections to the original proposals came from Umno, Abdullah said many Umno leaders were still dissatisfied with the proposals.

"Umno has complained to me but I said I cannot do anything more. They were allowed to bring their proposed amendments to the Parliament but I have told them (there was no need) to make a mess of things. If this were to be allowed then everyone would want to do it," he said.

Abdullah said objections to the EC's redelineation proposals were to be expected as it was not possible to satisfy every party.

"In the guidelines for the EC, it is added at the end that the criteria should be followed as far as possible. Sometimes, it is not possible. It cannot be 100 percent according to the formula for redelineation. If it cannot be done, then it is left to EC to use its discretion."

With the passing of the motion to accept the redelineation plans, Abdullah said the government would present a bill for the corresponding constitutional amendment in June this year, in time for the next general election, due latest by November 2004.