SHAH ALAM, March 28 — The motion to increase the number of seats in the Selangor state assembly must be seen as necessary so that it can be implemented based on public interest and not only as a political strategy for certain parties.
Security and political anaylst Dr Noor Nirwandy Mat Noordin said the increase in seats should not be turned into a tool to benefit any party and the number of voters in constituencies cannot be used as its main purpose.
“The importance of adding seats should be to ensure the main focus (people’s welfare) can be delivered by understanding the situation, the needs of an area’s demographics, categories of residents, and the existence of (social) education and economic institutions,” he told Bernama recently.
Noor Nirwandy said as such, the state government needed to create an information plan for communities describing how the addition of seats would assist in improving their standard of living and speed up the development of constituencies based on social and economic importance.
“The matter requires the refinement of many more factors, including the Election Commission (EC), as well as technical and legal provisions. We do know that any change or element of change relating to state seats are strategic by nature and will benefit certain parties,” he said.
Meanwhile, political analyst Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian commented that the Johor state government had wanted to do something similar just before former Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Hasni Mohammad’ called for a state election.
“It is time for Selangor and other states to assess to act innovatively about the increase of voters and geographical changes in relation to the current local political ecosystem,” he said.
Selangor state opposition assemblyman Datuk Mohd Imran Tamrin said he admitted it was time for the assembly to increase the number of seats as the difference in the number of voters in each constituency was very vast, especially after the implementation of Undi18 and automatic voter registration.
The Sungai Panjang assemblyman said that the implementation needed to be organised and not rushed so that no one will be negatively affected as the results of the redelineation study would be used for a long time.
“It’s true (that a redelineation study is needed) as there is an imbalance (of voters) in each constitutency. In the north of Selangor, where I am, there are under 50,000 voters, but in the city it can exceed 100,000,” he said.
Mohd Imran, who is a legal practitioner himself, explained that Article 113 of the Federal Constitution outlined two ways to conduct the redelineation study, firstly involving a study by the EC for a period of eight years and secondly through a constitutional amendment or state enactment by the legislative body, whether at Parliament at federal level or the state constituency at state level.
“For the first method, we have conducted a redelineation study in 2018 but there was no additional state seats. Selangor remained with 56 state seats and 22 parliamentary seats. Only the borders changed and some constituencies’ names were changed, for example, Sungai Tua constituency that was previously known as Batu Caves. For this option, we need to wait for a period of eight yeras from the last study in 2018, so it’s definitely lacking,” he said.
Therefore, Mohd Imran views that a motion will be tabled by the Selangor government using the second option of an amendment to the constitution or state enactment.
“If we observe Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari speech at the Selangor state assembly on March 21, it does seem he is going for the second option by explaining the process to gain a two third majority, which I don’t think is a problem at the Selangor assembly.
“Only when it’s brought to Parliament it will take time also if the addition of seats is conducted for the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15),” he said.
The Selangor government had previously suggested of bringing a motion of adding more state seats at the following sitting as there are constituencies with voters of over 75,000 to 100,000 for a single seat.
During his speech, Amirudin listed the constituencies expected to be involved in the additional seasts,, including 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.
