SELANGOR Pakatan Harapan is still gathering 500 objections to the Election Commission’s second notice on its redelineation exercise, said election director Dr Xavier Jayakumar.

Although he did not give a figure, Xavier said the pact had received a lot of objections, and was in the process of collecting more to be submitted to the commission.

“We in Selangor PH agreed to submit an objection, and this time around, we are trying to get 500 objections to be submitted to the EC before February 14,” he told a press conference in Shah Alam today, adding that one objection comprised 100 signatures.

The Seri Andalas assemblyman said Selangor PH would collect objections for all 22 parliamentary and 56 state seats, and highlighted seats affected by the redelineation exercise, such as the Sabak Bernam, Kota Raja and Shah Alam parliamentary seats, and his own state seat.

He also posed a question to the EC, whether it was possible for the state Barisan Nasional to submit an objection to the redelineation exercise this time around as it did not do so for the first notice.

“Umno will submit an objection to (the second notice on) the redelineation exercise by the EC. We do not understand why they would want to object, because they are strong in Selangor. It seems like they are in panic mode.

“My question to the EC is, if they didn’t object to the previous redelineation exercise – as if they had agreed to it – are they allowed to object to the second notice?”

On January 15, the EC published its list of recommendations for its redelineation exercise in the state.

Critics claim that the redelineation gives BN an unfair advantage in the 14th general election.

The recommendations on the proposed redelineation will be displayed for a month, until February 14.

Selangor BN had said it would submit its objection to the EC, claiming the redelineation was unfair and favoured PH.

State BN chairman Noh Omar said the objection would be made on the grounds that the EC was seen as still maintaining most of the boundaries used in GE13, which did not reduce the disparity in the number of voters, seat distribution and areas of jurisdiction by local authorities. – January 26, 2018.