WITH the implementation of Undi18 and automatic voter registration (AVR) as of January16, 2022, an additional 5.8 million voters will be added to the current 15.3 million eligible voters, bringing the total to 21.1 million on our electoral roll. Compared to GE14’s 14.9 million, that’s an increase of a whopping 41.6%.

How are these new voters distributed? Would all 222 parliamentary seats and 600 state legislative assembly seats see a proportionate increase of 41.6% or thereabouts? From the available data I have so far, it seems that the spread ranges from 20% to 80%, with mostly urban constituencies seeing the highest increase due to Undi18 and AVR. This is far from fair distribution and made worse by the already very disproportionate constituency sizes we have in Malaysia.

According to the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) report in 2017, Malaysia has one of the worst electoral boundaries in the world with vastly unequal constituency sizes (malapportionment) and boundaries that do not follow administrative boundaries or are mad up of irrationally divided villages or housing estates (gerrymandering). These is structural manipulation of electoral boundaries to skew electoral outcomes in favour of certain political parties even before the first vote is cast in an election.

The last delineation exercise in 2015 (Sarawak), 2017 (Sabah) and 2018 (Peninsular Malaysia) did not restore constituency sizes to “approximately equal” or “maintain local ties” as required by the 13th schedule of the Federal Constitution in section 2(c) and 2(d) but instead made it even worse.

For example, the variance between the smallest and biggest Parliament seats in Selangor was 1 to 3.4 between P.92 Sabak Bernam (37,318) and P.109 Kapar (144,159) before the 2018 delineation exercise by the Election Commission (EC). After the exercise, the ratio became 1 to 4.4 between Sabak Bernam (40,863) and the largest seat P.102 Bangi (178,790).

With Undi18 and AVR, Bangi, already the largest parliamentary seat in the country, saw its voter base balloon to over 295,000, and will be over 300,000 by GE15. Sabak Bernam has over 51,000 voters, making the disparity between the two, 1 to 5.8. This is just intra-state malapportionment within Selangor. If we compare Bangi with P.207 Igan in Sarawak with 28,000 voters post-Undi18 and AVR, the ratio is 1 to 10.5 times. In short, the voters in Igan are worth more than 10 times those of Bangi and the vote value of a voter in Sabak Bernam is almost six times more than those in Bangi. 

Does it make any sense to interpret the constitutional guidelines to have constituencies “approximately equal” or even if you allow for a “measure of weightage for rural constituencies”, to have such malapportionment? It is like saying the value of the British pound (RM5.64 to GBP1) is the same as our ringgit, or to 1 Thai baht is equal to RM1. If that is true, please pay my wages in British pounds! It is utterly illogical, dishonest, unjust and unconstitutional.

What can be done to rectify this situation?

The Federal Constitution states that the period between delineation exercises must not be less than eight years, meaning that for Sarawak it would 2023, Sabah 2025 and Peninsular Malaysia 2026. But a delineation can be triggered within the eight years if:

1. The territory of Malaysia changes. Invading a neighbouring country like Singapore or losing Sabah to the Philippines or Sarawak going independent should do the trick.

2. A new federal territory is declared. Perhaps making Pulau Jerejak a penal colony again and place it under the federal government?

3. Adding (or taking away) parliamentary seats by amending article 46. This is the usual and less “nuclear” path usualy taken.

Another less-known fact is that a state-wide delineation can be triggered if the state legislative assembly (DUN) adds or removes the number of seats within the assembly. By delineating DUN seats, you would also be changing the boundaries of the Parliament seats since by law, DUN seat boundaries cannot cross Parliament seat boundaries.

But would triggering a delineation exercise now resolve this extreme malapportionment and gerrymandering so that we can hold GE15 with better electoral boundaries?

As mentioned earlier, legally, it is possible to trigger an early delineation exercise but with each passing day, it is becoming practically impossible if we want new constitutionally compliant boundaries by GE15. The law allows the EC to take up to two years to complete a delineation exercise and the EC has shown that they can do it well within a year-and-a-half, as was done the last time. But the 14th Parliament term will end July 16, 2023 and GE15 must be held within 60 days from that date. Time is literally running out to trigger a delineation before GE15.

The more important question is, “Will we have fairer boundaries if there is a delineation exercise?” Sadly, the answer is probably “no”. Manipulation of electoral boundaries is almost as old as this country, and it is conducted by the only body that is entrusted with this task – the EC. Though the constitutional guidelines are there, the “saya yang mengikut arahan” (I who follows orders) bureaucrats have constructed excuses to prop up the gross injustice that violates the spirit of the constitution on boundary delineation.

The reason for such servitude and lack of independence (backbone) is that the members of the EC are all appointed by the Agong on the sole advice of the prime minister and the EC is considered an agency under the PM’s Department. The funding comes from the PM and the staff from the civil service. Commissioners are usually those retired from the civil service at age 60 and they serve until age 66, the mandatory retirement age at the EC. That, in my opinion, is not the best pool to look for “boat rockers” or reformists.

We need an independent EC or better still, an independent and separate boundary commission to handle this most important task of the election process, the fair delineation of electoral boundaries. Independence without accountability can become a runaway train. It would be right to place the EC under the oversight of a multi-partisan permanent Parliamentary Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to ensure minimal interference from the executive.

The loser of malapportionment are the voters of super-sized constituencies like Bangi (295,000), Kota Raja (238,000), Damansara (237,000), Iskandar Puteri (219,000), Tebrau (217,000) and Klang (208,000). Not only are their vote value worth much less than that of fellow voters in other parts of Malaysia, but they are also grossly underrepresented. Can you imagine a single MP trying to serve and represent the will of over 200,000 voters?

Smaller seats are not only easier to serve and represent but also when it comes to vote-buying, it’s cheaper and as such more likely to see money, patronage and even identity politics being played out. This explains why the incentive to use race and religion will continue, and the resistance to political financing law to control the flow of funds into parties will always be there regardless of who comes to power.

So, what can we to do? Are we forever condemned to be pawns of politicians who use their position to game our electoral system to stay in power? Is there nothing we can do to break their hold and reset our nation to the true spirit of democracy, where we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people?

I know it is an uphill climb to bring about fair boundaries and other reforms, but change can happen one forward step at a time when we vote. We vote for candidates and parties who are truly committed to reforming our electoral and political systems. Let them pledge clearly, publicly and categorically in their manifestos. Reject those who are ambiguous or silent about restoring the rights of voters and fixing our broken system. Let the rakyat rise, especially the 58% of voters who are under the age of 40. Let us vote, vote, vote. – January 28, 2022.

* Thomas Fann is Bersih 2.0 chairman.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.