PKR has claimed the Election Commission (EC) has failed to hear more than 200 public objections for its second round of public hearings on the state’s redelineation exercise.

Selangor Pakatan Harapan election director Dr Xavier Jayakumar said Selangor PH and Bersih had submitted more than 250 objections to EC for the Syor 2 (Second Notice) on the redelineation suggestions. 

“Only 40 objections have been called for their hearing. These objections represent Parliamentary constituency of Ampang, Pandan, Gombak, Kuala Selangor, Kuala Langat and Serdang,” he said in a statement today, referring to the three-day second round of public hearings which end tomorrow.

“The other 210 objections representing other constituencies of Selangor are supported by more than 22,000 signatures. They deserve the right to know what has happened to their objections.” 

He said all the objections were submitted with valid arguments of law and fact based on Section 2, Schedule 13 of the Federal Constitution. 

“If the EC has reasons to reject those 210 objections, notice in writing has to be given to the objectors. 

“We will not hesitate to take legal action against the EC for failing to call the 200 objections for public hearing,” he said. 

Selangor PKR Election Committee legal and security director Sangetha Jayakumar, meanwhile, questioned if this was another attempt by EC to bulldoze and complete the public hearings before the sixth session of the 13th Parliament next week. 

“In practice, each objection should have been given 30 minutes to be heard, this is because every objection represents more than 100 people. This was how it was done in Syor 1 (First Notice).

“Today, however, EC clearly wanted to fast track the process and combined the objections from each parliament.

“For example, Gombak had 9 objections with 3 speakers for each objection, so they lumped together 27 speakers at one go and finished the process in about 2 hours, when the actual process should have taken four-and-a-half hours,” she said. 

She said today’s public hearings were opposite to what EC did yesterday, when they called only seven objections from Umno. 

“Why was Umno and Barisan National given the whole day to present just seven objections, while we from Pakatan Harapan have been harassed and pressured into completing these 31 objections today? 

“This is a complete mockery of the constitutional process of carrying out public hearings on the redelineation exercise,” she said.

Electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 previously said the second redelineation proposal for Selangor’s electoral boundaries still contained elements of malapportionment and gerrymandering.

Its chairman Maria Chin Abdullah said although fewer seats would be affected by the proposed electoral boundary changes, the commission did not address existing distortions in voter representation.

The proposed changes will now affect five parliamentary constituencies instead of the 18 in the previous proposal. The affected constituencies are Ampang, Kuala Selangor, Gombak, Pandan, and Tanjong Karang. 

Four state constituencies would be affected, down from six. The four affected seats are Batu Caves, which will be renamed Sungai Tua; Bangi (Sungai Ramal); Chempaka (Pandan Indah) and Teluk Datuk (Banting).

Opposition lawmakers and civil society groups have long accused the ruling government of collaborating with EC to skew voter representation to favour rural voters, where Barisan Nasional enjoys bigger support. – February 27, 2018.