Abdul Aziz said the redelineation proposal would be tabled in Parliament next year since Schedule 13 of the Constitution stated that the number of voters in one area should not be too large to the extent that it burdened the member of parliament.
“We are doing this based on the clause in the Constitution. If a parliamentary area has more than 100,000 voters, we have to reduce it,” he was quoted by Umno-controlled daily Utusan Malaysia.
Abdul Aziz said the total of voters in a parliamentary or state legislative seat also depended on whether the area was in a city, suburbs or outskirts.
“We also have to take into account differences between the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak.”
In Article 113 (2)(ii) of the Constitution, redelineation can be done eight years after the last redelineation exercise. The last redelineation exercise was in 2003.
Previous redelineations occurred in 1958, 1974, 1984, 1994 and 2003, with all the redelineations done after 10 years, except in 1958 and 1974 (16-year gap) and 1994 and 2003 (nine-year gap).
The EC will receive its allotment from Budget 2014 and is now in the process of appointing senior officers from the Department of Survey and Mapping.
He said that the redelineation should have been done in 2011 but it was deferred because of the 13th general election.
By Trinna Leong
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