SHAH ALAM, AUG 17: In the absence of electoral reform, any electoral constituency redelineation exercise will only lead to unfair election results.
Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar said that as an independent body, the Election Commission (EC) must defend the integrity of the democratic system effectively.
She said, According to the Electoral Integrity Project (2014), Malaysia is labelled to be of “low integrity” and is ranked 66th among the 73 countries which conducted national parliamentary and presidential elections between July 2012 and December 2013 – specifically for a serious extent of compromise in district boundaries and electoral laws.
“Any attempt to ‘adjust’ the elections will be seen as protecting the political status quo and crony capitalism that is now hampering our nation’s future,” she said in a media statement.
Nurul Izzah, who is also KEADILAN Election Director and Vice President, added that redelineation did not reflect actual voter demographics, but instead was slanted to favour Barisan Nasional and this clearly showed that the current federal government was insincere in championing the interests of the public.
“We must strongly reject any redelineation exercise conducted by the EC until the EC moves to implement the recommendations stipulated by the 2012 Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms,” she said.
The committee, she added, called for the creation of three independent bodies to respectfully manage the conduct of elections, manage the electoral roll and review election constituencies.
“Malaysia is in dire need of reforms, not the least of which are electoral reforms to ensure that our next general election will not be stolen by kleptocrats,” she said.
Electoral reform should not be merely redelineation
