DAP election strategist Ong Kian Ming said that based on current election trends, the only hope left for BN to remain in power is by capitalising on the redelineation exercise that must be carried out by the Election Commission (EC) this year.

NONE This, he explained, is due to the fact that BN now has a larger pool of marginal seats it must defend compared with Pakatan Rakyat.

"It cannot be denied that BN is on the defensive even though Pakatan did not manage to win a majority of seats," Ong ( right ) told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

The new Serdang MP said that BN has a total of 46 marginal seats to safeguard compared with Pakatan's 30.

He defined a marginal seat as a constituency won by either coalition by less than 55 percent of votes.

NONE "With the increase in the number and percentage of younger voters who are less influenced by the mainstream media and more willing to vote across racial lines in support of Pakatan, it is increasingly clear that the BN will likely lose power in the 14th general election.

"What may save the BN is a grossly-skewed and unfair redelineation exercise which is scheduled to start sometime this year and completed before the 14th general election," he said.

'BN may need to work with Pakatan'

However, he pointed out that the re-delineation involving raising the number of parliamentary seats must receive a two-thirds majority of endorsement in Parliament, which BN no longer has for the second consecutive term.

NONE "BN has no choice but to work with Pakatan to come out with a redelineation exercise that is agreeable to all parties," he said.

Nonetheless, Ong conceded that BN can still circumvent this hurdle by having the EC conduct the redelineation exercise without creating new parliamentary seats, thus not requiring parliamentary approval.

"But if that happens, then in 2014, there will be many seats (in urban centres) that will have more than 200,000 voters and this is grossly unfair.

"Even now Pakatan won the popular vote but only has 40 percent of parliamentary seats, it is unacceptable and has to be rectified in the redelineation exercise," he said.

Pakatan had complained that in urban seats where it is strong, the parliamentary constituencyis very large with over 100,000 voters whereas in rural areas where BN is strong, the electorate could be as small as only around 20,000 voters.

"They may try to create more rural seats where BN is strong in the next round and not increase as many number of seats in Selangor where there are already 10 seats with more than 100,000 voters," he said.

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