EC redelineations set to be approved by Parliament

With the Election Commission (EC) being successful in getting court cases filed against them in relation to their ongoing redelineation exercise struck out, the road ahead towards completing the exercise now seems clear.

“The EC has had a 100 percent success rate so far at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court,” noted Lim Wei Jiet, a lawyer representing the Selangor state government.

The second round of EC local inquiries for Selangor is set to be held next week. The redelineation exercise for Selangor has been delayed due to the various court cases brought by the state government against the EC.

Local inquiries are held by the EC to hear representations from the electorate on the proposed new electoral boundaries.

“Once the redelineation exercise for Selangor is completed, the EC will have to consider the representations and prepare a report to be submitted to the prime minister,” said Lim.

The government will then table EC's redelineation proposals contained in the report for approval at the parliamentary sitting set to commence on March 5.

“The prime minister will lay the EC's report together with a draft order, with or without modifications, to the EC's recommendations. The draft order will then be put to a vote,” said Lim.

The bill will only require a simple majority to be passed.

“If no simple majority is reached in Parliament, or if it is withdrawn, the prime minister may after consultation with the EC amend the said draft order and put it to a vote again,” said Lim.

With 133 lawmakers, BN can ensure that the bill goes through before it is sent to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to be made an order.

The EC and Pakatan Harapan had locked horns over the redelineation exercise, with the latter claiming that the exercise was designed to favour BN. They alleged malapportionment among others.

The Federal Court on Monday refused to grant leave for an application by seven residents in Malacca as well as two Perak MPs to challenge the EC's re-delineation exercise.

Chief Justice Mohd Raus Sharif ruled it was up to Parliament to decide on the report submitted by the EC on the exercise.

The Court of Appeal also dismissed the Penang government's appeal on its judicial review application to challenge the redelineation exercise.

The Penang government's application for judicial review was similar to the Selangor government's bid where it complained of gerrymandering and malapportionment in the constituencies.

Apart from these cases, the case filed by PKR's See Chee How against the EC saw the Sarawak High Court allowing the judicial review and declaring the EC's redelineation notice to be null and void.

That decision, however, was reversed by the Court of Appeal and this was later upheld by the Federal Court in 2015.

The Penang High Court also dismissed DAP lawmaker Zairil Khir Johari's bid to obtain leave from the court for a judicial review against the EC's redelineation exercise.

“They are rushing it and it looks like it has to do with the coming elections,” said Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah.

“Especially when Parliament is to sit in March. Whole constitutional issues have been thrown out the window,” she said.- Mkini