SHAH ALAM, March 21 — The state government is proposing to raise a motion to increase the number of state seats at the upcoming sitting, Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said.
Amirudin said the matter will be implemented as the assembly had seats with over 75,000 voters, with some reaching even 100,000 voters.
He said the suggestion to add seats is to create a balance between the number of voters in urban and rural areas so that services provided by elected representatives could be conducted fairly.
“Currently there are (seats) with over 75,000 voters that we will focus on and maybe we will combine. There are two or three seats where voters are over 100,000. The seat with the most voters, 118,000 is Kinrara. Yet to add seats, we need to have an understanding because it’s not easy to add seats.
“The things we need to take into consideration are the impact of state assemblymen’s salaries, allowances and pensions. This all requires consideration because realistically we can do it in a period of six months at the earliest,” he told reporters at the lobby of the Annexx Hall of the Selangor State Secretariat Building today.
Amirudin said a briefing regarding the suggestion will be held between the Election Commission (EC) and the Selangor state assembly on March 30.
“After this, there will be another level (of discussions) at the joint committee between the EC and the state government to view suggestions from both parties before presenting it at the next state assembly sitting, which requires a two-thirds majority support for it to be brought to the Dewan Rakyat,” he said.
Amirudin had listed the constituencies that are expected to be affected by the changes in seats earlier in the day which includes Batang Kali, Gombak Setia, Teratai, Semenyih, Kajang, Balakong, Sungai Ramal, Seri Serdang, Kinrara, Subang Jaya, Seri Setia, Bukit Lanjan, Kota Damansara, Kota Anggerik, Bandar Baru Klang, Pandamaran, Sentosa, Sungai Kandis, Kota Kemuning and Dengkil.
He said the motion was mooted after his meeting with the Selangor EC that had informed him previously that there were currently 3.66 million registered voters in Selangor.
“In light of the increase in voters every month with the rate of automatic registrations of over 89,000 voters, that means 12 months from now, the total voters in Selangor will reach around 4.6 million,” Amirudin said.
— Bernama
