DAP questions EC's redelineation exercise

DAP election strategist, Ong Kian Ming questioned the move made by Election Commission (EC) to push ahead the redelineation exercise despite facing a court challenge by the Selangor state government.

He was referring to a notice to omit Selangor from the nationwide electoral boundary redrawing exercise, that was published in several dailies on Wednesday.

The bid by EC has been 'unprecedented' as it had excluded the parliament as well as state seats in Selangor as mentioned in the notice, said Ong.

“The EC’s decision to announce the second public display for all the states in Peninsular except for Selangor shows that it may want to push through a delimitation exercise that leaves the boundaries in Selangor as it is but with the proposed changes in the other states, many of which favours the Barisan Nasional (BN).

“The move is questionable and likely to be unconstitutional," claimed the Serdang MP in a statement.

The Selangor government had challenged the EC’s proposed redelineation, questioning the renaming of several constituencies and the redelineation exercises.

Selangor Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali in a news portal today was quoted as saying that the EC's bid was 'unlawful'.

The High Court today dismissed the Selangor government's application to cross-examine the EC chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Hashim Abdullah.

Under Article 113(6) the Federal Constitution, the EC is to execute redelineation exercises for Sabah, Sarawak and the “States of Malaya” separately by treating them as three separate units, with the “States of Malaya” term to include Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.