Opposition using redelineation exercise to mask own failings: PM's aide

PETALING JAYA: The Opposition's attempt at preventing the Election Commission (EC) from conducting enquiries as part of its redelineation exercise in Selangor was only meant to mask their own failings, said an aide to Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
The prime minister's press secretary Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin said that like any other democracy, Malaysia routinely carries out redelineation exercises ahead of an election to reflect its population growth.
He stressed that the process was free from political interference and managed by an independent body, the EC.
"The opposition's politicisation of the process and exploitation of the legal system to stop it is an attempt to distract from their falling popularity.
"The reality is that Malaysia's judiciary is free and fair," he said in a statement today, just a day after the Court of Appeal allowed an application by the EC to set aside a high court order preventing it from carrying out local enquiries in Selangor.
Taking the opposition to task, Tengku Sariffuddin said court decisions too frequently go against the government, and that the Opposition only complained when decisions do not favour them.
"It is a shame that they choose to run down their own country internationally just for their own political gain," he said.
The Selangor government had, on Oct 19, 2016, filed a judicial review to quash the EC's notice to have local enquiries into objections raised on the redelineation exercise, claiming that the commission had acted unconstitutionally in the exercise by using a defective electoral roll.