Be inclusive to solve conflict over new election boundaries

No sooner did the Election Commission (EC) announce the proposed redelineation of Sarawak’s constituencies on January 5 than a flurry of objections erupted over the exercise.

The entirely predictable furore is an alarm bell signalling that much grief is in store for everyone before this pivotal saga in our democratic history winds down.

At the heart of the conflict between the EC and its critics is the imminent possibility that the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition may lose its control over Parliament for the first time since independence as support for the opposition parties had surpassed that for the ruling pact, by a 51:47 ratio in the last general election.

As we know, however, securing a majority of the popular vote did not translate into enough seats for the opposition parties to form the government, as BN nevertheless won 60% of parliamentary seats, while the Pakatan Rakyat coalition got only 40% of the 222 seats in the lower house.

A key factor in this inverse relationship between votes and seats is, of course, the way in which the constituency boundaries are drawn.

Naturally, the opposition parties are watching the redelineation exercise closely for any sign that the changes may put them at a further disadvantage and so scuttle their chances of forming the federal government.

Among civil society groups, the election watchdog Bersih 2.0 has been at the forefront of efforts to monitor the exercise to ensure that it is clean and fair, so that the electoral process is transparent and accountable, in line with fundamental democratic principles.

What political observers had feared about the redelineation appears to have come to pass in Sarawak. Commenting on the proposed changes, Sarawak-based political analyst Dr Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis told The Malaysian Insider that he was “dumbfounded” by the proposals, noting that “the redrawing and shifting of the electoral boundaries clearly showed it is being done to benefit certain political parties.”

Faisal noticed “lots of changes in the boundaries of marginal seats” – that the BN had won with thin margins in the last state and general elections and where the opposition had made inroads.

In a strongly worded critique, Bersih 2.0 condemned the EC for serious flaws in the exercise, particularly for providing maps where the boundaries of polling districts were not shown and for “gross malapportionment”.

Noting that such incomplete maps had never been used before, Bersih 2.0 said that “by denying voters the knowledge of polling district boundaries, the EC is undermining the people’s ability to meaningfully evaluate the EC’s recommendation and consider other possible combinations of polling districts”.

This, Bersih 2.0 said, violates the requirement of the Federal Constitution that in drawing electoral boundaries, “regard ought to be had… to the maintenance of local ties,” as stated in the 13th Schedule, Part 1, Section 2(d).

Concerned over these developments, the Penang government said it would seek a meeting with the state EC to ensure that it would not “do a Sarawak” in the delineation exercise for the state.

Citing an example of malapportionment in the Sarawak exercise, Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin pointed out that the difference in the number of voters between two of the 11 proposed new state seats, Gedong and Batu Kitang, was a glaring 215%.

"This is why civil society and Pakatan Rakyat parties have long argued that we should revert to the principle of ‘one person, one vote, one value’ so there will be more balance between the numbers of voters in the different seats," said Sim, who sits on the Penang government's representative committee on electoral delineation.

Such criticism against the EC gives a foretaste of the problems that can be anticipated when the exercise is extended nationwide to state and parliamentary seats soon.

In Sarawak, state PKR chief Baru Bian had warned the EC that he may seek a judicial review of the exercise this week if it does not provide full and detailed disclosure on its proposal and the list of voters affected by the exercise.

For example, he said, the EC had failed to mention that the Batu Lintang constituency had been moved from the Stampin parliamentary constituency to the Bandar Kuching constituency. Baru said they only realised it upon close scrutiny of the new election map, The Malaysian Insider reported.

“These kinds of movements could affect the voters. Who are affected and where have they been moved to? There are no details… Without these details, no voter could raise an objection,” Baru observed.

Bearing in mind the impacts of constituency redelineation on the outcomes of the next two general elections, civil society groups have been preparing the ground for citizens to hold the EC to account on the exercise.

For at least a year, the Delineation Action and Research Team (DART), a joint project of Bersih 2.0 and the civic action group Engage, has been educating voters nationwide on how to raise objections to any unfair delineation.

The aim is to get citizens to form groups of 100 voters in their constituency to object within the 30-day period allowed for the purpose.

As Bersih 2.0 said in a press statement last week, in the previous delineation exercise held more than a decade ago, the public had been ignorant about what the Federal Constitution expects of the EC and about how to evaluate the work of the EC.

Now, they are much less ignorant, thanks to advances in communication technology and the rise of civil society organisations. The public expects the EC to change, to execute its responsibilities consistent with the aspiration to be a developed nation by 2020, Bersih 2.0 said.

However, a more fundamental question begs to be addressed in tandem with our efforts to lay the foundations of a robust democratic system. This concerns the notion of inclusiveness in the political, economic, social and cultural life of society.

As voters show a growing disapproval for the race-based political culture of the past, can the extended institutions of government, including the EC, evolve towards a diversity-based ethos that can accommodate all elements of society in their vision?

If the answer is yes, much of the pain that we must now endure need not happen at all. – January 10, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.