PETALING JAYA, April 25 — The Election Commission’s (EC) drawing of electoral boundaries makes a rural voter worth an average of six urban voters, biasing elections towards Barisan Nasional (BN) as it is stronger in the countryside, according to poll analysts.
Election watchdog Tindak Malaysia founder PY Wong said the ruling coalition won 112 out of the smallest 139 federal seats in Election 2008, giving it simple majority in Parliament with just 18.9 per cent of the popular vote. The seats have not been changed for the next general election.
“Something is seriously wrong when you can win 50.4 per cent of Parliament with just 18.9 per cent of the votes,” he told a forum here last night.
Wong said malapportionment — unequally-sized constituencies — and gerrymandering — manipulation of electoral boundaries — also allowed the ruling coalition to rack up 62 of the smallest seats with just 6.2 per cent of the popular vote.
Another analyst, Wong Chin Huat, pointed out that the smallest 112 seats only represented 33.8 per cent of the electorate.
The Bersih steering committee member said this allowed for the lopsided results in 2004, where BN won 90.9 per cent of Parliament with just 63.9 per cent of the popular vote, while Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was PKR’s sole MP despite gaining 8.4 per cent of votes cast.
“This means one vote for BN was worth 26 votes for PKR,” he said.
Jarumemas: Has been voting since at the age of 21 without fail, even though at one time I was working in Sabah in 1999. No one sponsored my flight ticket. Even, when I was in Johor Bahru, I drove up together with my parents to vote in Seremban and again no petrol or toll fare were paid by any politicians. Nowadays, voters are given cash just asking them to come back to vote at their hometown. Since voting is voter's duty, their responsibility is to vote wherever their voting stations are. They should not be paid.
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