I impute to Malaysiakini report, 'A retiree exposes gerrymandering in Sabah', as well as applaud Ng Chak Ngoon for his contribution, generally his graph upon the unequal numbers of voters between electoral constituencies.
The description of constituencies has prolonged been deliberate unfair because of dual practices which have been generally regarded as electoral abuses, namely mal-apportionment as well as gerrymandering.
Both these practices can have critical effects under the first-past-the-post electoral system, which you have have use of of in Malaysia.
What Ng has so graphically exposed (chart below) is mal-apportionment or inequality between subdivision electorates, rsther than than gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is the drawing of subdivision boundaries for partisan value as well as it can be finished even in the deficiency of mal-apportionment.
Starting with the initial subdivision rider in 1974, various scholars have ! remarkable si gns of gerrymandering yet the some-more critical source of bias in electoral constituencies is mal-apportionment.
The question now is: what can be finished to reduce mal-apportionment as well as gerrymandering in subdivision delineation? Three things seem important.
Reform the EC
First, have firm the autonomy of the Election Commission (EC), the delineator during initial instance. This can be finished especially by mending the process of appointing elect members, only as you have not long ago finished with apply oneself to judges.
The EC should additionally have have use of of its existent inherent power to designate its main admi! nistrati ve officials instead of totally relying upon sovereign civil servants.
Second, the EC should report its recommendations upon revised constituencies directly to Parliament for approval.
At present, the EC reports to the budding minister, who can afterwards have changes to the commission's recommendations prior to tabling them in Parliament, as well as additionally thereafter, in order to secure their capitulation by Parliament.
This procession does not inspire confidence which constituencies will be fairly delineated. An combined magnitude is to need some-more than the benefaction elementary infancy (in effect, the support of the statute celebration alone) in Parliament for the capitulation of revised constituencies.
For example, such changes should need concurrent majorities by supervision ! as well as oppo sition or during slightest the two-thirds infancy of Parliament.
Third, revive the clear numerical boundary to mal-apportionment which have been private from the sovereign constitution. Some credentials is useful for understanding the referred to measures.
To safeguard the elemental element of approximately next to electorates between constituencies, differences in subdivision electorates were singular to fifteen percent on top of or next the average subdivision citizens during the time of Merdeka.
No some-more limits
These clear numerical boundary were loose in 1962 as well as afterwards private in 1973 by inherent amendments: the sovereign constitution now allows, rsther than imprecisely, "a magnitude of weightage" in foster of farming constituencies.
With clear boundary removed, farming weightage has been liberally applied by the EC, even yet communications as well as other disadvantages of farming areas which form the fact for farming weightage have positively as well ! as signi ficantly declined since Merdeka.
Indeed, subdivision electorates have been now so unequal as to have one consternation whether the elemental requirement of approximate equality is still being complied with.
For Peninsular Malaysia, therefore, it is not irrational to revive the boundary to mal-apportionment which existed during the time of Merdeka, which is, fifteen percent on top of or next the average subdivision electorate.
Conditions in Sabah as well as Sarawak would justify wider boundary than those for Peninsular Malaysia. We might revive the boundary which were in force when Malaysia was formed.
Those boundary allow the largest subdivision to have twice the series of electorate as the smallest constituency, this is, one-third or 33 percent on top of or next the average subdivision in any state.
This would still paint the considerable reduction from benefaction levels of mal-apportionment in the dual states.
Largely, because of mal-apportionment, the use of subdivision description is the vital means of unfairne! ss in ou r electoral system. It causes some-more bias than deficiencies in voter registration as well as campaign rules.
Indeed, correcting bias in subdivision description is the poison exam for the parliamentary name committee upon electoral reform as well as the government.
LIM HONG HAI is the political scientist with Universiti Sains Malaysia. Here is the some-more detailed hearing of the Malaysian electoral complement in Lim's essay, 'Electoral Politics in Malaysia: 'Managing' Elections in the Plural Society'.
Polis Harus Bertanggungjawab Atas Penangkapan Saya - Salahuddin Ayub
YB Sala huddin Ayub hari ini ( 8 Ogos 2011) memfailkan saman terhadap polis dan kerajaan Malaysia atas dakwaan menangkap dan menahan mereka secara salah ketika perhimpunan BERSIH 2.0 pada 9 Julai 2011 Maklumat Lanjut Sila Layari www.klpos.com Video Rating: 1 / 5 More Barisan Nasional (BN) | Pakatan Rakyat (PR) | Sociopolitics Plus |
No comments:
Post a Comment