KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — The Election Commission’s (EC) study on Sarawak’s electoral boundaries’ re-delineation began this year, with Sabah to commence in 2025 and the Peninsula in 2026.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh said the study would take about two years, after which a report with the EC’s findings will be submitted to the Prime Minister.
“In the process, the EC will take into account many factors, like proportionality,” he said in response to a supplementary question from Klang MP V. Ganabatirau on the re-delineation of electoral boundaries considering the disproportionate number of voters in some Parliamentary constituencies.
Earlier, to an original question from Arau MP Datuk Seri Shahidan Kasim regarding the drastic drop in voter turnout in the 13th, 14th and 15th general elections, Ramkarpal said the overall turnout was 84.84 per cent, 82.3 per cent and 74.74 per cent, respectively.
The low turnout was influenced by the denominator used, which was the high number of registered voters following the implementation of automatic voter registration and the lowering of the voter age limit to 18 years.
He said last year alone, 206 voter education programmes were conducted, which involved 123,647 participants.
The programme focused on providing an understanding of the election process in Malaysia and the importance of voters exercising their rights, while the Election Academy (APR) implemented 233 voter education programmes this year with 66,926 participants from various educational institutions, ministries, and non-governmental organisations.
— Bernama
