EC has to adopt most recent redelineation, says chairperson

The Election Commission (EC) has to adopt the most recent redelineation of the electoral boundaries that was approved by the Dewan Rakyat before the 14th general election (GE14) last year.

Its chairperson Azhar Azizan Harun said the matter had to be adopted although the numbers of voters in the country would increase with the lowering of voting age to 18.

“According to our current constitutional framework, we have to adopt the most recent redelineation of the electoral boundaries for the next eight years.

“So we are stuck with it for eight years [...] whether we like it or not, we have to adopt it even with the increase in the number of registered voters,” he told reporters after attending a "Democracy Forum" held at USM in Penang today.

However, Azhar Azizan said, that there was an exception as stated in the Federal Constitution that a revision could only be made before eight years were up if the number of parliamentary seats was changed through a constitutional amendment.

“Let's say there is a change in the number of seats with the support of a two-thirds majority of the 222 seats. Only then we can carry out the redelineation exercise earlier than the eight years as stipulated,” he said.

The same would apply in every state through their state legislative assemblies, he said.

He also added that the EC expected the number of voters to increase by more than 50 percent bringing the number of voters to around 22.7 million, compared with 14.9 million in the GE14 last year. - Bernama