Ethnic gerrymandering taking place in Selangor, says Serdang MP

PETALING JAYA: Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming claims the Election Commission (EC) is helping Umno win the next general election in Selangor by using "ethnic gerrymandering" and changing the ethnic voting demographics in Selangor seats.
He said the EC's recent second public notice on its redelineation exercise appears to show that it was reverting the boundaries of Selangor's parliament and state seats back to the boundaries previously used in the 2013 general elections (GE13).
He said a deeper examination of the polling districts that were shifted shows the EC is guilty of "ethnic gerrymandering".
"EC's intention is to help Barisan Nasional (BN), specifically Umno, win back some of the marginal state seats by increasing the percentage of Malay voters in these seats," he said in a statement.
He added that they also shifted non-Malay voters to safe Pakatan Harapan state seats.
The DAP assistant political education director said there were six federal Opposition-held state seats in Selangor where the percentage of Malay voters went up by more than 5% as a result of the EC's revised proposal in the second notice.
He was referring to the EC's second notice that was published on Monday after it completed the first round of local enquiries to hear objections to its proposals to redraw electoral boundaries and shift voters around in Selangor.
Selangor voters, the state government and local authorities now have one month to object.