– Dr. Xavier Jayakumar, Member of Selangor State Assembly and PKR Vice President

The manner of how the Election Commission (EC) has gone about with the re-delineation process for Parliament and state seats throughout Malaysia is absolutely disgusting.

The principle of ‘one man one vote’ has been totally compromised following the EC’s actions seeking to change the names of 12 parliamentary seats and 34 state constituencies nationwide.

The exercise affects Selangor the most as five parliamentary seats and the state seats under it are being slated for the name change. Taking note that all these seats are currently under Opposition rule, one could easily speculate that the latest move by the EC favours Umno.

With these changes, they have effectively moved thousands of voters around to create fewer mixed-raced seat. Thus the EC in one way or the other has ensured that Selangor gets an increase in the number of Malay-majority seats.

A clear example in the Seri Andalas state seat, for which I am currently the incumbent assemblyman; it shows an estimated 30252 voters have been effectively moved following EC’s plans.

Furthermore, SPR has brought in 14268 new voters from Malay areas. So from a 60-40% (non Malay-Malay) mixed seat, we have become about 85% Malay – majority seat.

These 30K voters have been shifted to Dun Kota Alam Shah. Another 11010 from Dun Sri Muda and Dun Pelabuhan Klang have been added to Dun Kota Alam Shah too. None of the original voters from Dun Kota Alam Shah are in that Dun anymore. So how can anyone justify why this is still called Dun Kota Alam Shah.

This to me is daylight robbery of the voters’ rights. The same voters who want to see a change in Malaysia. With this move, the EC is robbing the Malaysian public of their constitutional rights by trying to circumvent the Federal Constitution.

This is morally and legally wrong and the people should not allow it to happen.

As such, we ask that the EC members reconsider its methods in determining the re-delineation exercise for the various parliament and state seats or resign immediately as they have disgraced the sanctity of the Malaysian public.