KUCHING, March 14 2026: DAP Members of Parliament will not support a proposal to increase the number of State Legislative Assembly (SLA) seats when it is put to vote in Parliament, Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen has warned.
Chong Chieng Jen says the proposed electoral exercise is a power-entrenchment exercise for the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)
He said the state DAP is of the view that the proposed delineation exercise, as it stands, is a clear case of gerrymandering and against the spirit of the constitutional democracy.
“Members of Parliament from the DAP will not support such proposal,” Chong said in a statement.
He, however, said the party is open to further discussion with the Elections Commission (EC) and any party on the manner of delineation for the 17 new seats which are more reflective of the true spirit of democracy and fair representation.
Chong, who is also Padungan State Legislative Member (SLM), said the Sarawak DAP supports electoral reforms in that if electoral seats are to be added, the purpose must be to correct malapportionment, strengthen fair representation, and restore confidence in the democratic process.
“On the contrary, it is obvious that this proposal is an electoral exercise that selectively benefits certain areas, entrenches incumbent advantage, and weakens confidence in the EC and the democratic system is not reform in the interest of Sarawak.
“It is a power-entrenchment exercise for the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), “ he said.
He said having perused the 98-page leaked powerpoint presentation, the Sarawak DAP opposes to the proposed delineation, stressing that it devalues urban votes in a grossly disproportionate manner.
“While the proposed rural seat of Oya has only 10,830 voters, the urban seat of Senadin has 73,430 voters,” he said, adding that by implication of the ratio of 1:7, the value of seven voters in Senadin is equivalent to the value of one voter in Oya.
“With such unfair delineation, the urban voters are deprived of their rights to fair representation in the Sarawak SLA,” he said.
Chong, who is also Stampin Member of Parliament, said the proposal carries an unfair voter distribution among the urban seats.
“While Petra Jaya (114,750 voters) and Bandar Kuching (109,607 voters) are both urban seats and have similar number of voters, there are two additional new seats (Serapi and Semarak) proposed for the Parliamentary constituency of Petra Jaya but no new seats were proposed for the Parliamentary constituency of Bandar Kuching.
“It is well-known fact that Petra Jaya is PBB’s safe seat while Bandar Kuching is not. By increasing the number of state constituencies under Petra Jaya, PBB and the GPS will have further advantage to increase its stranglehold on state election,” he fumed.
“This is hugely unfair to the voters in Bandar Kuching,” he charged.
Chong also the proposal is an affront to the rule of law and Federal Constitution, pointing out that Subsection 2(c) of the 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution requires constituencies within the same state to have numbers of voters that are “approximately equal”, with only limited weightage for genuinely large and hard-to-access areas.
“It further stresses that weightage of area should only apply to very large constituencies facing transportation challenges,” he said, adding that a delineation exercise that departs from this constitutional spirit for partisan advantage is an affront to the Constitution.
Chong disagreed with PBB information chief Abdul Karim Rahman who yesterday denied speculation that a decision had been made on the distribution of the additional 17 seats among the GPS component parties.
“However, he was non-committal on the claim that these new 17 proposed seats were prepared by the GPS for EC’s adoption,” he said.
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