By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, July 17: Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong has called for overpopulated urban constituencies such as Pending, Padungan, Batu Lintang and Pelawan to be given priority for splitting if a redelineation exercise is implemented in Sarawak.
Criticising the imbalance in voter distribution, Yong highlighted how rural seats like Gedong, Sadong Jaya, Pelagus and Kelaka have fewer than 10,000 voters each, while urban constituencies like Pending, Batu Lintang, Kota Sentosa and Pelawan each have between 30,000 to 40,000 voters yet remain unsplit and underrepresented.
“One rural vote now carries the weight of three urban votes—a clear breach of the democratic principle of ‘one person, one vote’.
“This is a deliberate strategy to weaken urban voices, which tend to be more politically informed, independent and critical of GPS,” she argued in a statement issued on Wednesday (July 16).
Calling on the Election Commission (EC) to act impartially and reject political pressure, she urged that any redelineation must prioritise correcting urban underrepresentation, reflect actual population growth, and uphold fairness and constitutional integrity.
Maintaining her stand, Yong refuted claims by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and its component parties comprising Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), that increasing Sarawak’s State seats from 82 to 99 is necessary to gain more parliamentary representation.
“This is a blatant distortion of constitutional facts and exposes the alarming ignorance of GPS leaders and their cyber troopers,” she said.
She explained that under Article 46(1) of the Federal Constitution, parliamentary seats can be increased through constitutional amendment without affecting the number of State seats, stressing the two processes are independent of each other.
Citing historical precedents, Yong pointed out that Sarawak’s parliamentary seats were increased several times, such as in 1974, 1986, 1995, and 2004, without any corresponding increase in State seats.
“Furthermore, Sarawak’s increased its State seats in 2005 from 62 to 71 without any parliamentary increase.
“These examples debunk GPS’s claim. Linking State seat increase to parliamentary seat increase is false, misleading and legally baseless,” she stressed.
Yong alleged the current proposal is part of a politically motivated gerrymandering exercise aimed at tightening GPS’s grip on power, similar to what was done by the former Barisan Nasional (BN) Sarawak.
“It is intellectually dishonest for GPS to pretend this is about fair representation when it is plainly about political survival,” she said, vowing that the opposition will not remain silent when Sarawakians’ democratic rights are undermined. — DayakDaily
