EC proposes renaming 12 Parliamentary, 28 State seats
Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (standing) presented the proposal to review the electoral boundaries for the coming 14th General Election at the Dewan Rakyat sitting at Parliament House today.
KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Bernama) -- The Election Commission has recommended the renaming of 12 parliamentary constituencies and 28 state constituencies in peninsular Malaysia in its Report on the Review of Electoral Boundaries.
The independent body has also recommended that the number of parliamentary and state constituencies in the peninsula remains unchanged.
Thus, for the coming 14th General Election (GE14), the number of parliamentary constituencies for the whole country remains at 222 and the number of state constituencies at 587.
GE14, however, will not see state elections in Sarawak which has 82 state constituencies. Sarawak held its state elections on May 7, 2016.
The Review of Electoral Boundaries covered all the states in the peninsula and also the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan. The report was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The proposed change of name of the constituencies involves amending the old form of spelling to the new and amendments such as the Serdang parliamentary seat now being known as Bangi; Kelana Jaya as Subang; Petaling Jaya Utara as Damansara; and Gelang Patah as Iskandar Puteri.
The review of the electoral boundaries is in accordance with Article 113 of the Federal Constitution and based on the principles and rules of review of electoral boundaries provided for in the constitution.
The last review of the electoral boundaries was done in 2003 and, according to the Federal Constitution, a review is necessary at least once in eight years.
According to the report, the criteria for review was based on the geographical and topographical conditions of the constituencies; level of development; demographical conditions; density of population and number of electors; as well as basic infrastructure facilities such as roads and communication systems.
Local investigations were conducted on 600 of the 1,685 representations received.
The objections raised included those pertaining to the transfer of polling districts from one place to another as well as on the gap in the number of electors.
The EC has accepted as well as dismissed representations on the objections with the reason that the review was necessary to maintain local community relations and reduce the gap between the numbers of electors among constituencies.
The review of the electoral boundaries, carried out since Sept 15, 2016, was conducted in a transparent manner through the process of notice on the review, display, recommendations, representations and local investigations, said the report.
It also said that the total number of electors in peninsular Malaysia is 11.3 million, or 11,379,352 to be exact, based on the electoral rolls verified and gazetted on May 13, 2016, and Sept 6, 2016.
-- BERNAMA
