Ranau needs new MP and State seats: Siringan
Published on: Thursday, February 05, 2015
Ranau: Sabah may be left further behind by Sarawak and the other states in the development mainstream if it does not follow Sarawak's move to have at least 11 new state seats under the proposed re-delineation of electoral boundaries. Upko Vice President Datuk Siringan Gubat said Sarawak had requested for 11 new state seats under the proposed re-delineation, which had already been endorsed by the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly."I was made to understand that the Sarawak's request seems to have lately been recognised by the Election Commission (EC) and that there were reports in the media on the re-delineation exercise already in progress in the State (Sarawak)," he said. ADVERTISEMENT In the case of Sabah, Siringan, who is also Paginatan Assemblyman, said the State Government has yet to state its stand on the matter although a news report on Jan 19 said Sabah may get seven new state seats.Also mentioned in the report are the seven proposed new seats, namely Bukit Garam (under Kinabatangan parliamentary constituency), Langkon (Kota Marudu), Sepagaya (Lahad Datu), Pandasan (Kota Belud), Limbahau (Papar), Mengkabong (Tuaran), and Darau (Sepanggar).Sabah EC Director Datuk Md Idrus Ismail had reportedly said early last month that the commission has submitted the proposed re-delineation for Sabah to its headquarters and the proposal will be put on display for public feedback at a date to be fixed later."I don't know the actual progress of the proposed re-delineation involving Sabah as the State Government has yet to state its stand," said Siringan, who is also Resource Development and Information Technology Minister. ADVERTISEMENT "We just hope that we will get similar treatment like Sarawak…I hope we will get at least the same number as Sarawak's. If we get less than that, we will be left further behind by Sarawak in terms of development progress," he said.Siringan, who is formerly Ranau Member of Parliament, also maintained his view that Ranau needs a new parliamentary as well as state seats.
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He said this was what he had proposed in the Parliament in early 2011 while he was still the MP."During my tenure as MP, I had studied, including a comprehensive report done by Upko then, and found that it is appropriate for the Ranau parliamentary constituency to be divided into two and a new state constituency be created," said Siringan.The Ranau parliamentary constituency presently has three state seats, namely Karanaan, Kundasang and Paginatan.Siringan said the Ranau constituency is about 4.5 times the size of the State of Perlis and this, coupled with its hilly geographical landscape, makes it appropriate for it to be divided into two parliamentary constituencies to enable the areas and people of Ranau to enjoy fair development.According to the Statistics Department, Ranau had a population of about 95,800 in 2010, an increase of 2.5 per cent from 74,456 in 2000. In terms of voters, the Ranau constituency has altogether 39,750 registered voters, according to the 2013 Electoral Roll. Kundasang state seat has 13,545 registered voters, Karanaan 12,590 and Paginatan 13,615.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"If you look at the proposed new state seats in Sarawak, some of them only have about 6,000 or 7,000 voters, meaning there is no reason for our request for additional seats in Ranau not to be endorsed," said Siringan.The proposal for Ranau to have a new parliamentary and state seat was also included in Upko's proposal to the EC under the current proposed re-delineation of electoral boundaries.