ROSE: S’wak due for review on redelineation of electoral boundaries

KUCHING (Dec 11): Sarawak is due for a review on redelineation of the electoral boundaries by the Election Commission (EC), said Rise of Social Efforts (ROSE) co-founder Ann Teo.

She said this is in view of the fulfilment of the minimum eight-year interval from the last review and delineation exercise which was last conducted in 2015.

“Due to the automatic voter registration, Sarawak now has around 1.9 million voters of which 833,940 are new voters since the 2015 delineation exercise. This means that our population has increased.

“The EC must exercise its duty although it is not compulsory for them to do the review now. It is a matter of them starting the review because it has been eight years already,” she said when conducting a talk on ‘Sarawak Delineation’ at the Human Rights Festival Sarawak (HRFS) here yesterday.

She said Sarawakians, on the other hand, should also ponder on what is the justification for increasing the number of state or parliamentary seats.

“The increase of seats causes financial burden but does not necessarily provide bigger voters’ voice or better development.

“There may be more jobs for politicians namely the state elected representatives (ADUNs) and members of Parliament (MPs) but there will be greater financial burden for taxpayers,” she said.

Teo also said that should there be an increase in the number of ADUNS and MPs, this would also mean a weaker State Legislative Assembly (DUN) and Parliament if the number of days for Sittings are not extended.

“For instance, our current DUN only sits for 16 days each year. So as voters, do you think that your ADUN will be able to serve the people well or have they spent their time to make better policies for Sarawak by debating in DUN?”

Teo noted that malapportionment and gerrymandering may also worsen with the increase of seats.

According to her, malapportionment creates constituencies that are significantly unequal in the size of electorate, under-representing voters in over-crowded constituencies and over-representing voters in thinly populated constituencies.

“Usually, low population constituencies are located in rural areas. They are mostly determined by comparing sizes of individual constituencies against the average size namely the total of voter population divided by the number of the state or parliament constituency.

“The greater the deviation from the average, the worst is the malapportionment,” she explained.

She said around two-thirds of the state’s constituencies were below average size, with the remaining one-third being concentrated in cities or urban areas.

Teo co-founded ROSE with a few other like-minded Sarawakians in 2013 and it is currently the only non-governmental organisation (NGO) working on civic and voter education as well as electoral and institutional reform.

She is also the Coalition for Clean and Fair Election (Bersih) Sarawak vice chairperson.

HRFS was jointly organised by a group of Sarawak NGOs and civil society organisations (CSOs) to celebrate Human Rights Day – observed worldwide on Dec 10 – as well as to raise awareness to the public on the importance and significance of human rights.

In addition to the talk, other activities held included documentary and film screenings, discussions on anti-trafficking and gender rights, awareness talk on ‘Stigma and Discrimination Against People Living with HIV’, forum on ‘Rights of Children’, cartoon-drawing workshop, as well as awareness talk on consumer rights.