The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) said there is no need to increase the number of parliamentary and state constituencies but the Election Commission needs to improve its management in drawing up electoral borders.

Bersih 2.0 chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah said countries like the United States and India have seen a rise in population but the number of elected representatives remain the same.

"India has capped its size to 552 members and former Bersih steering committee member Wong Chin Huat pointed out that our MPs met for only 561 hours or about 2 hours 32 minutes per lawmaker to debate. If there is an increase in the House, this would result in less time for debates on a bill," she said.

"What is needed is for the EC to improve on its management in drawing up the borders so that we do not have incidences of people living in one house but voting in two constituencies. If you are located along the coastal area, you must be with other voters with a similar environment. Presently, the EC is doing it very arbitrarily to maintain the dominance of the ruling coalition," she said.

Maria pointed out that what is needed is to eliminate gerrymandering and disproportionate seats.

"Without a seat increase, the EC would find it extremely difficult to create a safe constituency for BN," she added.

Following this, she also called for Pakatan Rakyat's support to reject any proposal for an amendment to Article 46 of the Federal Constitution to increase the number of parliamentary seats.

A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority, which Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's present BN government does not have.

The last re-delineation exercise done in 2003 and 2005 was when BN under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had obtained the two thirds majority in 2004.

More seats for Selangor and KL

The Bersih chairperson added that redelineation should be allowed to amend the present inter-state malapportionment that has led to some states having more seats than warranted.

She said that to tackle the problem, heavily represented states like Johor, Pahang and Perak can reduce their share so more seats could be allocated in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Presently, she pointed out that Johor, Pahang and Perak have 26, 14 and 24 parliamentary seats respectively.

"If Johor can be reduced by two, Pahang and Perak each having three less seats, than the additional seats could be allocated to Selangor and Federal Territory which had seen an exponential rise in population and voters," Maria said.

"Bersih is not recommending any changes to Sabah and Sarawak to respect the spirit of the 1963 allocation," she added.

Maria further pointed out that the disproportionate distribution by the EC has led to many constituencies being managed by two or three different local councils.

The worst, she said, is Selangor where five out of 22 parliamentary constituencies and two state constituencies span across three local authorities.

"Meanwhile, four parliamentary constituencies and 11 out of 56 state seats span across two local authorities," said the Bersih chairperson, adding this division is causing a lot of inconveniences to the elected representatives and voters.

Among the parliament seats that are run by three local authorities include Kelana Jaya, Subang, Sepang, Serdang and Kota Raja.

Maria also said that during the 2003 and 2005 re-delineation exercise, the EC teleported voters and this could be clearly seen in Kampung Abdullah in Segamat, where 39 percent of the 3,008 voters were transferred from Segamat to Sekijang.

"This has resulted in one Mr Ong voting in Segamat while his siblings and his wife voting in Sekinjang," she said.