Redelineation Impact on Selangor in GE14
Selangor, the richest and most populous state in Malaysia, has been on the forefront in fighting the unfair redelineation. The reason is very simple: Selangor has witnessed significant shifts in electoral boundaries especially in the marginal areas.
Based on the research by Politweet (social media research organisation), the redelineation has significant impact on who forms the next Selangor state government If you refer to the map above, northern Selangor state seats are hardly touched. Many semi urban/rural and highly urbanized seats (Central Selangor) experienced significant border movements. These movements affect significant portion of state seats in Selangor.
At best, the research concluded that redelineation would create a weakened Pakatan Harapan (PH) government. However, in the light of PAS ending its relationship with PAS, three corner fights could not be averted. According to Politweet’s research, should 15% of Malay vote shifted to a third party (neither PH or BN), BN is able to wrest back the state. It is also known that redelineation done in Selangor had a racial twist. Certain seats saw significant increases of Malay voters and Chinese voters on the assumption of their GE13 voting behaviour.
Selangor’s redelineation was done in complete disregard to the concept of One Person, One Vote, One Value. There was no attempt to equalize voter count for Selangor urbanized seats or reduce their gross under representation. The voting power difference between Damansara (highly urbanized) and Sabak Bernam (rural) is 4 times. Sabak Bernam voters have become the most powerful voters in Selangor. Secondly, Selangor’s redelineation was based on electoral roll that has numerous defective/ incomplete addresses. Hence, the redelineation is done on the basis of wrong electoral figures.
While there is an ongoing court case against the Selangor’s redelineation, it is not certain whether EC will be using old electoral borders for GE14 (for Selangor and whole of Malaysia). As voters, we choose a party (or parties) that is (are) committed to fair redelineation for Selangor and Malaysia in the next GE.
