Malaysia among world’s most unequal voter dispersal systems

7/28/2019 Malaysia among worlds most unequal voter dispersal systems

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Malaysia among worlds most unequal voter dispersal

systems, says DAP MP

By Boo Su-Lyn

July 19, 2013

Malaysians queue outside a polling station to cast their vote in Pekan on May 5, 2013.

AFP pic

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 The distribution of voters in Malaysia is one of the most

unequal among countries that practise the first-past-the-post electoral system, falling

behind even some African democracies, the DAPs chief strategist said today.

Ong Kian Ming pointed out that based on his own calculations, Malaysia ranked 21 out

of 25 countries on the level of malapportionment, or the measure of inequality in the

distribution of voters among seats in a country, noting that Botswana, Sierra Leone and

Uganda scored higher at the 10th, 13th and 20th spots respectively.

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The reason why the United States (US), Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada

have lower levels of malapportionment compared to Malaysia is that they all have rules

which limit the maximum amount of deviation allowed for in each individual

constituency, the first-term MP said in a statement today.

The Serdang MP noted that the US (0.014), Australia (0.03), the United Kingdom (UK)

(0.041) and Canada (0.083) have far lower malapportionment measures than Malaysia

(0.173).

Ong told The Malay Mail Online that Malaysias score of 0.173 meant that 17.3 per cent

of voters needed to be shifted to achieve a score of zero malapportionment.

He said that the UK sets a five per cent limit for constituency sizes above or below the

national quota, while Australia sets a 3.5 per cent limit above or below a states electoral

quota. Canada sets a limit of 25 per cent above or below a provinces electoral quota,

while in the US, various Supreme Court decisions require the population in each

congressional district to be roughly equal in order to respect the one-man-one-vote

principle.

The opposition lawmaker urged Putrajaya to follow the example of such advanced

democracies by ensuring that the disparity among constituencies should not be more than

15 per cent from the average constituency size, as recommended by the Reid Commission

before Independence in 1957.In 1962, however, the Alliance government the

predecessor to the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition amended the Federal Constitution

to retrospectively annul the 1960 delineation and to mandate the Election Commission

(EC) to submit new delineations to the prime minister for parliamentary approval.

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Rural weightage was also changed in the same year so that urban constituencies could be

double the size of rural constituencies.

The Federal Constitution was later amended again in 1973 to remove the limit entirely.

To ensure that malapportionment in Malaysia is decreased to a level which is consistent

with being the worlds best democracy, Prime Minister Najib should also establish a

Parliamentary Select Committee to specifically oversee the next delimitation (or

delineation) exercise which the Election Commission has announced will commence at

the end of the year, said Ong, referring to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The fact that almost all of the recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee

on Electoral Reform have not been implemented is a strong reminder of the lack of

commitment on the part of the prime minister to introduce serious electoral reform in the

country, he added.

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Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan

Jan reportedly said last May that the existing delineation of constituencies was illogical in

terms of the number of voters and size.

The analyst had pointed out that the Putrajaya federal constituency only has 15,791

voters, compared to Kapar that has a whopping 144,159 voters.

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Malaysia among world’s most unequal voter dispersal systems