Election Commission is making itself looks like a fool, charges DAP

KUCHING, Jan 11,2015: Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the Election Commission (EC) is making itself looks like a fool in rushing to increase the number of State Legislative Assembly seats, from the present 71 to 82.

He said it has more to do with appeasing the two Barisan Nasional-friendly United People's Party (UPP) and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) while maintaining the number of parliamentary seats at 31.

The proposed electoral boundaries of Sarawak

UPP,  a splinter group of the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP), is led by Minister of Local Government and Community Development Wong Soon Koh while Teras, a splinter group of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), is led by Social Development Minister William Mawan Ikom.

UPP and Teras, though not the component parties of the State BN, but are part of the State BN government.

Commenting on the proposed re-delineation of the electoral boundaries to accommodate the 11 additional seats, Chong said:"The integrity and impartiality of the EC is called to question.

"So far, the so-called further explanation or purported justification provided by the EC in respect of the re-delineation only reinforces the fact that it is the stooge of the BN or even the 14th party in BN," he charged today.

Pointing out the self-contradictory explanation provided by the EC in respect of the re-delineation exercise, Chong, who is Bandar Kuching Member of Parliament, said the commission claims that the re-drawing of the certain constituencies into smaller ones is for the purpose of making it easier for the elected representatives to serve their constituencies.

"If that is the case then, why is there no re-delineation of the Parliamentary seats?  If the state lawmakers need to have their constituencies down-sized to provide better service, why is then there no such similar need for the MPs and their parliamentary constituencies?

"The true reason for the non-increase in the Parliamentary constituencies is that the BN does not have  the two-thirds majority in Parliament and the re-delineation is so unfair and ridiculous that the EC is confident that no right-minded opposition members of Parliament will lend their support to such proposal," he said. 

He added:" The EC claims that the rural or suburban constituencies are larger in surface areas, thus harder to serve, therefore the need to have less number of voters.

"If that is the case, why is Satok, one of the smallest in surface areas, has only 13,580 voters?

"The surface area of Satok, which is an urban constituency,  is slightly bigger than Padungan, but smaller than either Pending or Batu Lintang.  Satok’s surface area is only one-third of the surface area of Kota Sentosa and one-fifth of the surface area of Batu Kawah.

"Yet, Satok has only 13,580 voters while Padungan has 22,873 voters, Pending 30,881 voters, Batu Lintang 24,640 voters, Kota Sentosa 21,247 voters and Batu Kawah has 19,643 voters.

” Anyway, it is a joke that when there is an increase of 11 state constituencies for Sarawak, there is totally no increase in Parliamentary constituencies for Sarawak.

"Therefore, I call on the EC to withdraw its present proposal and re-do the whole thing to come up with a new proposal.  This is the only way which the EC can hope to save whatever credibility it has left," Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa State lawmaker, said.

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