PETALING Jaya Utara should not be subjected to redelineation as doing so would see the constituency having more than 100,000 voters, making it hard to manage, said Kampung Tunku MCA branch coordinator Ch’ng Soo Chau.

The constituency currently has two state seats – Kampung Tunku (N35) and Damanasara Utama (N36) – with 32,000 and 50,000 voters, respectively, under one parliamentary seat.

Ch’ng, who is also Petaling Jaya MCA deputy chairman, was among the Petaling Jaya Utara residents who were at the Election Commission public hearing at Concorde Hotel in Shah Alam today to submit their objections to the redelineation exercise in Selangor.

“We object to the redelineation exercise as we strongly feel that a constituency should be limited to 100,000 voters.”

He said having two state seats under the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat (P106) was characteristic of Petaling Jaya, and adding another seat would not go well.

“It will not represent Petaling Jaya. Under the proposed redelineation, the Damansara Utama seat will be changed to Bandar Utama, and there will be an additional seat, namely Bukit Lanjan.

“This makes it a combined total of 151,000 voters. It would be the largest constituency in the country, to my knowledge.”

He said such large urban areas would be too big and difficult for reps and MPs to manage.

He said the Bukit Lanjan area alone was bigger than the existing Petaling Jaya Utara constituency.

It extends from Sri Damansara all the way to Sungai Buloh. It also covers some parts of Selayang.

“For this reason, we submit our objections today. We hope things will return to the status quo, with Petaling Jaya Utara having two state seats.”

Earlier today, a Gerakan member slammed the redelineation exercise as “gerrymandering of the highest order”, following the proposal to turn P106 into Damansara, which would increase the number of voters by 75%.

Bukit Lanjan (N37) Gerakan coordinator Syed Abdul Razak Alsagoff was defiant after submitting his objection.

“I vehemently protest against this proposal, which is gerrymandering of the highest order, because they removed seven district voting centres from Bandar Utama and Kampung Sungai Ara, out of the 17 I initially had, and they gave me six centres from Templer and five from Paya Jaras.

“This increases Chinese voters from 57% to 62% (47,000 to 61,000 voters).”

He said the proposal saw him getting more Chinese voters and fewer Malay voters.

“The Malays at my place have been reduced from 28% to 26%, while the Indians stayed the same at 12%.

“This gerrymandering is in violation of Article 13 of the Federal Constitution on the law of proportionality.”

Kampung Sungai Ara was singled out as an example of an area that would suffer from the proposal.

“It (Kampung Sungai Ara) has certain social problems that need attention, and when you lump it together (in a new constituency) under one MP, how is he going to pay attention to all the specific problems?”

He threatened to come after the EC at Padang Mahsya (on Judgment Day) if it continued to push for the redelineation.

“I am Muslim, and many in the EC are Muslim, too. So, if this is pushed through, and since I’ve used my own money, if I lose, I will claim it at Padang Mahsya for those who believe in Judgment Day.

“This (redelineation) is not right. It’s just to help some parties that are not sure of winning anyway.

“You lump the Malays together, but it’s not certain that they’re going to support Umno. You are fighting between Bersatu, PAS, Amanah and PKR.”

Selangor has 22 parliamentary and 56 state seats.

Each EC public hearing session is organised according to parliamentary constituency. – January 3, 2018.