Azmin: We’ll go to court if Selangor left out of redelineation proposal (9.3.17)

The Selangor government will head to court if Selangor is excluded when the Election Commission (EC) presents its proposal on the redelineation exercise for the peninsula to the prime minister.

Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali said he was informed that the EC had submitted its review to Najib Razak to be approved by Parliament.

“And if it is true, we will challenge that position because the law does not allow a review to be presented to the prime minister without the entire unit of Semenanjung (peninsular Malaysia),” he said.

Azmin, who is also Gombak MP, was speaking to reporters after attending a court proceeding on a challenge by Selangor against the EC’s redelineation exercise in the state.

“We will appeal and object first. Certainly, we will file a legal challenge (after other avenues are exhausted),” he said.

The EC published an 18-page notice in major newspapers in September on the proposed redelineation in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

The EC has two years to complete the exercise.

The Sabah Legislative Assembly has approved the EC’s suggestion to increase the number of seats from the current 60 to 73.

The EC has maintained the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, and the status quo remains for seats in all legislative assemblies in the peninsula.

However, the EC has redrawn election boundaries and this has invited criticism from political parties from both sides of the divide and civil society.

According to procedure, the EC would submit its proposal to the prime minister who would table it in the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara for approval with a simple majority vote.

Both houses will be in session until next month.

In the on-going case, Selangor is seeking to nullify the EC’s notice of redelineation as it argues that the constitution has been violated in drawing the new electoral boundaries.

The state also wants a declaration that the notice is lacking in details and will cause voters, local authorities or the state government to be unable to exercise their constitutional right to file representations.

It wants the court to quash the EC’s notice and an order to direct it to publish a fresh notice on the proposed exercise.

Source:FMT