Sarawakians to benefit from review of electoral boundaries - Najib

The redelineation of parliamentary and state electoral boundaries in Sarawak will enable the people to benefit from more efficient and effective delivery of services, especially in the interior areas, said Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The Prime Minister said the review of electoral boundaries was designed to help raise the economic living standard of the people and drive development in Sarawak.

The Sarawak legislative assembly approved the relevant legislation on the increase in the number of state constituencies from 71 to 82 effective Dec 5 last year, he said.

"As such, the Election Commission had to undertake the redelineation of the Sarawak parliamentary and state electoral boundaries," he said when tabling a motion on the report of the redelineation in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Najib said it had been eight years since the last redelineation of electoral boundaries in Sarawak and, as such, the latest exercise met the provisions on the matter in the Federal Constitution.

The premier said the EC handed him the report on the redelineation on Aug 21, 2015.

He said the exercise was carried out with the use of the electoral rolls gazetted on April 30 last year which had the number of voters in Sarawak on record as 1,109,134.

"The last redelineation exercise was carried out in 2005 with the use of the electoral rolls, indicating 905,722 voters, gazetted on Nov 4, 2004.

"This goes to show that the number of registered voters in Sarawak has risen by 18 percent or 203,412 people," he said.

Najib said in undertaking the latest exercise, the EC also reviewed and updated the existing polling districts in Sarawak and proposed several new districts because of newly registered voters and the need to have more polling centres.

The notice of the proposed electoral boundary recommendations for Sarawak was first gazetted on Jan 2, 2015.

"The recommendations and draft redelineation plan were displayed at places stated in the notice of redelineation as well as published in several local newspapers," he said.

Najib also said as a proactive measure, the notice, recommendations and draft plan were uploaded onto the EC official website for the people to access it more easily.

The report tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today proposes that the number of state constituencies in Sarawak be increased by 11 to 82.

The number of parliamentary constituencies remains unchanged but some had their boundaries altered to suit the creation of the state constituencies.