Re-delineation: Sabah EC told to look at ethnic ratio
Published on: Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) President Datuk Teo Chee Kang has suggested to the Sabah Election Commission (EC) to take into account the ethnic ratio in Sabah in its proposed re-delineation of electoral boundaries, to ensure there are suitable constituencies for Chinese candidates to contest in. Teo, who is also the Minister of Special Tasks, along with LDP leaders, paid a courtesy call on Sabah EC Director Datuk Md Idrus Ismail recently. Teo said they were made to understand that the proposed seven new state seats for Sabah published in the media recently have not been finalised yet, and that the EC would carry out the re-delineation exercise based on legal procedures.
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Political circles are claiming the new state seats proposed are Bukit Garam (under Kinabatangan parliamentary constituency), Langkon (Kota Marudu), Sepagaya (Lahad Datu), Pandasan (Kota Belud), Limbahau (Papar), Mengkabong (Tuaran), and Darau (Sepanggar).Teo said the party's stance was that the race of a candidate and the constituency he or she contested were not directly interrelated, meaning that a candidate of any race could contest in any constituency. "However, we cannot deny that the ethnic ratio of a constituency yields a certain level of impact on the overall landscape of the State Legislative Assembly. "Hence, I have suggested to the EC to take into account the ethnic ratio in the State in its re-delineation exercise," Teo said after the courtesy call. "We do not wish to see that after adding seven or 10 new seats in the re-delineation exercise, but practically none is suitable for Chinese candidates to contest in.
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"This will directly affect the political strength of the Chinese community in Sabah," he pointed out. Therefore, Teo said the EC must achieve the right balance in terms of ethnic ratio in the re-delineation of electoral boundaries.
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On the other hand, Teo said it was high time to increase the number of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak if the re-delineation exercise also included parliamentary constituencies. He said the current number of parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak is 56, only 25 per cent of the total 222 parliamentary seats in Malaysia. At present, Sabah and Sarawak have 25 and 31 parliamentary seats respectively. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"We hope Sabah and Sarawak's representation in the Parliament will be increased."Also present at the courtesy call were LDP Deputy President Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin, Vice President Datuk Lim Ming Hoo, chief publicity officer Albert Kok, organising secretary Peter Chong and Supreme Council member Nancy Lim.