While some groups are mobilising voters to raise objections to the upcoming redelineation exercise, the DAP’s Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai warned that previous objection hearings had only been “cosmetic”.

He said that, during the 2003 redelineation exercise, he had led a group of 100 voters to object the Election Commission’s (EC) proposed electoral boundaries which would have allotted the Cheras police district headquarters and a then 35-year-old shopping mall to the neighbouring Titiwangsa constituency.

Tan (left) argued at an objection hearing chaired by then EC chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman that these landmarks form a ‘natural’ part of the Cheras constituency and should remain part of Cheras, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

“After hearing it, he said ‘You have good reasons to object’. He did not make any decision on the spot, but said it would be taken into account. Of course, the decision went against us,” Tan said when contacted..

Bersih and Tindak Malaysia are both recruiting volunteers to scrutinise the current redelineation process and to raise objections if necessary.

The move is to prevent malapportionment and gerrymandering, as alleged in previous redelineation exercises, and to ensure that voters are sufficiently organised to file an objection within 30 days of EC’s notice.

The redelineation process is governed by the 13th Schedule of the federal constitution which allows state governments, local governments, and groups of at least 100 affected voters to also file objections to proposed constituency boundaries within 30 days of EC’s proposal being made.

After receiving these objections, the EC is duty-bound to hold a hearing and it may then make further changes to the proposed boundaries.

According to Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming (left), the EC had rejected most of the 370 objections filed in the 2003 redelineation exercise.

These included objections backed by politicians from both BN and opposition parties, he said, describing it as a “hit or miss” affair.

Most of the objections turned down were those not based on geographical factors, such as complaints that the proposed constituency was too big.

“I would say probably 80 percent of the objections were rejected,” said Ong, who was a political scientist prior to joining politics in 2012.

Complaints that were entertained, he said, were cases where the proposed boundaries had split communities; where a constituency was divided between several municipalities; where voters felt they belong to another constituency due to geographic factors such as roads or rivers; and where the name of the constituency was found to be unsuitable.

Under Section 2(d) of the 13th Schedule , the EC is to give consideration for ‘the maintenance of local ties’ when redrawing electoral boundaries.

Low public awareness

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail lamented that the objections raised during the 2003 redelineation exercise were primarily led by political parties and NGOs, but that few were initiated by citizens due to low public awareness of this process.

He urged the EC to step up its efforts to educate voters on the redelineation process and encourage them to provide feedback, just as it had urged citizens to register as voters.

As for objections from political parties, Saifuddin (right) said the Barisan Alternatif opposition coalition of the time had filed objections, but that these were not strong enough.

“We were not like today’s Pakatan Rakyat. Now are now well-equipped, well-informed, well-researched,” he added.