BERSIH 2.0 has broken Parliament’s embargo on the 2017 Sabah delineation report in a bid to prevent lawmakers from voting to adopt it at the Dewan Rakyat’s current sitting.

The elections reform coalition said it was making the report available online, ahead of voting tomorrow.

“The public has been kept in the dark on this important decision as no media could report on the report (due to the embargo). 

“The public must be informed of the report’s content before parliamentarians vote on it, and has no choice but to violate the Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 to reveal the full content of the report,” Bersih’s steering committee said in a statement today.

It said the delineation proposal was flawed due to malapportionment, which would be worsened after Parliament adopts constitutional amendments to lower the voting age to 18 and implement automatic voter registration.

Bersih said it would lead to a disproportionate number of votes between constituencies, and cited the Sepanggar parliamentary seat, with its 55,294 voters being 2.22 times the number of voters in Beluran, which has 24,916 voters.

It also cited the Sri Tanjung state seat (25,104 voters), which had 4.58 times the number of voters in Banggi (5,485 voters).

“Excessive malapportionment of constituencies will be worsened with the lowering of voting age to 18 and automatic voter registration, with the likelihood that 300,000-400,000 new voters added to Sabah’s existing electorate of 1,117,337 by GE15, disproportionally in urban area,” Bersih added.

It called for a redelineation exercise for Sabah should the lower voting age and automatic voter registration be passed by Parliament.

It also said the Sabah government should promise to amend its state constitution to increase the number of state seats to accommodate the higher number of the electorate.

The Sabah delineation increases the number of state seats from 60 to 73.

The 13 new seats are Bengkoka, Mangaris, Pintasan, Pantai Dalit, Darau, Tanjung Dumpil, Dambai, Tulid, Telupid, Sungai Manila, Lamag, Segama and Kukusan.

“Bersih, therefore, repeats its call for the federal government to cancel the debate and voting tomorrow, and urges all MPs, especially the 26 from Sabah and Labuan, to vote against it or at least abstain if it goes on.”

Bersih said it would also pay the RM1,000 fine for breaching the Parliamentary embargo.

Bersih executive director Yap Swee Seng was at the Speaker’s Office at 5pm today to hand over the coalition’s press statement to the speaker’s private secretary.

Yap said it was up to the speaker to accept Bersih’s offer to pay the fine. – July 16, 2019.