Surprise turnout of objections from BN individuals in EC's local enquiry

SHAH ALAM: The first two days of the Election Commission (EC)'s local inquiry for its redelineation exercise in Selangor saw a surprise turnout of objections by individuals from the Barisan Nasional fold.
The second day which was to oversee the objections from voters at the present Subang, Gombak and Tanjung Karang parliamentary constituencies saw only a single person attend the inquiry.
MCA Subang branch member BL Yong objected to the EC's proposal to rename and delineate Petaling Jaya Utara (P106) to become Damansara while Subang (P107) becomes Sungai Buloh.
He said the redelineation would cause both parliamentary seats to suffer from a huge voter discrepancy compared to other parliament seats in the state.
EC's plans, he said would make Damansara become the largest parliament seat in Selangor with over 150,000 voters while Sungai Buloh would consist of around 70,000 voters, making the voters' ratio 2.05 to 1 voter.
"The difference between both proposed seats is huge and goes against the Federal Constitution Schedule 13 which requires the number of voters of the delineated constituencies to be proportionate and approximately equal," he told reporters when met at the lobby of the Grand Blue Wave Hotel, here, today, following the hearing.
Requesting for a more balanced and proportionate seats between both, Yong proposed that the Bukit Lanjan state seat to be retained under the present Subang parliament seat, instead of being shifted to the new Damansara seat.
While the EC was expected to hear 13 objectors today, the remaining 12 did not attend the hearings according to an officer from the commission.
On Wednesday, the EC held its local inquiry for the Ampang, Subang and Kelana Jaya parliament seats.
Umno's Kota Damansara assemblyman Datuk Halimaton Saadiah Bohan had protested that EC's proposal to shift the Sungai Buloh army camp from her constituency to the Paya Jaras state constituency which she claimed would be detrimental in her bid to retain the seat that she won in 2013.
While Ampang Umno division chief Datuk Ismail Kijo had also opposed EC's plan to delineate two polling districts from the Ampang parliament to the Gombak parliament.
While several registered voters from Subang parliament have expressed their objection on the plans to delineate the seat, stating that the number of voters in the Subang Jaya state seat exceed the number of voters in the several parliament seats in the rural areas across Selangor.
The ongoing inquiries is expected to continue past the New Year weekend and is scheduled to be completed by Jan 9 according to sources.
Under Part II of the 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution, the EC is required to hold inquiries to consider these objections following the mandated redelineation exercise.
Following the first round of inquiries, EC would then decide if the changes to its proposals are necessary, requiring them to display the new proposal and allow objections to be filed for 30 days.
EC may then hold the second and last round of local enquiries on those objections before making its final submission to the Prime Minister.
The premier would then table it in Parliament for approval by a simple majority for before it is forwarded to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong prior to being gazetted as law.