He said the changes would also give the representatives the advantage of enhancing efficiency in the delivery of their services.
“This also dismisses the wrong perceptions and baseless allegations that the recommendations only favour certain quarters,” he said when tabling the motion on the review of electoral boundaries in the Dewan Rakyat.
The recommendations proposed by the Election Commission (EC) cover Peninsular Malaysia and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, an area of about 132,000 square kilometres.
Najib said the recommendations did not propose any change to the number of parliamentary and state constituencies but only suggested renaming 12 parliamentary and 28 state seats.
The prime minister said based on the EC’s recommendations, it was difficult to equally divide every parliamentary and state constituency because some rural constituencies differed from each other in terms of topography and demography.
He said this indirectly created constraints in terms of communication and transportation.
“That is why the population concentration in urban areas is far higher than in the rural areas.
“Nevertheless, I understand that the EC tried its best to ease the burden of the elected representatives, especially in the areas with limited communication and transportation facilities.”
Najib said he was informed that the EC recommendations were not agreed to by several quarters, including from within the government itself.
He said the government had neither interfered with nor influenced the EC in the discharge of its duties but respected its decisions for the good of all.
The review of the electoral boundaries was implemented fully in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Constitution and, as such, the government did not propose any changes to be made to the report, he said.
He also said the EC had carried out the review of electoral boundaries in keeping with Clause (2) of Article 113 of the Federal Constitution, which states that there should be an interval of not less than eight years between the date of completion of one review and the date of commencement of the next.
“The last time a review of electoral boundaries was approved was in 2003 whereby the constituencies approved were contested in three general elections, the 11th in 2004, the 12th in 2008 and the 13th in 2013.”
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