By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, March 11: Senadin and Tupong—two of the most grossly malapportioned State constituencies in Sarawak—might possibly be targets of the redelineation exercise, says Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice president Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
While he is not in the know of the Election Commission’s (EC) progress on the possible redelineation exercise in Sarawak, Abdul Karim believes that they would be looking at Senadin and Tupong constituencies as they have the greatest number of voters.
“If one seat has too many voters—for an example, Senadin which has more than 100,000 voters, and we have other State seats that only have 10,000 voters—we have to do a leverage.
“But rural bias has always been the rule of the thumb. We cannot focus on urban areas alone despite the fact that urban areas have larger numbers of voters,” he told a press conference before flagging off ‘D’Drift 2024’ at DayakDaily’s office here today.
He cited Telang Usan constituency as an example as it has only one representative to serve the entire area.
“Thus, you have to strike a balance so that the number of voters and the landmass of the constituency has got to be balanced up. Only then we can say it is fair.
“If you are saying it is not fair because your vote is less in value compared to the rural ones, you have to consider the elected representative who is looking after a huge area. In comparison, you can just visit your whole constituency in half a day,” he added.
Abdul Karim said this when asked by reporters with regards to the possible redelineation exercise rumoured to be focusing on suburban areas.
Apart from the increase in number of State seats, he hoped that the redelineation exercise would increase the number of parliamentary seats in Sarawak which would close the gap and bring Sarawak closer to slightly more than one-third of the number of parliamentary seats in Dewan Rakyat as enshrined under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
On Jan 1, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh hinted on carrying out a redelineation exercise in Sarawak as it has been eight years from the date of completion of the previous redelineation.
The most recent redelineation exercise for Sarawak was in 2015.
On Oct 8, 2023, PBB Special Convention for Betong Zone passed a resolution, proposing that the number of parliamentary seats in Sarawak be increased by 12, in line with the quest for one-third representation for Sabah and Sarawak in the Dewan Rakyat.
To date, Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats whereas Sabah has 25 seats, making up only 25 per cent of the total 222 seats in the Parliament. The remaining 75 per cent or 166 seats are held by Peninsular Malaysia. — DayakDaily
