The Election Commission (EC) has highlighted significant disparities in voter representation across Malaysia, pointing to overcrowded parliamentary constituencies in states such as Selangor and Terengganu compared with Sabah and Sarawak.
EC deputy chairman Azmi Sharom said Selangor, the country’s most populous state, has far too many voters packed into a limited number of parliamentary seats.
“Imagine Selangor — overcrowded. There are far too many people, but the number of parliamentary seats is small,” he said, as quoted by Sinar Harian today.
Selangor currently has 22 parliamentary seats representing about 2.9 million voters, an average of 132,000 voters per seat. Terengganu, meanwhile, has eight seats covering 931,000 voters, or roughly 116,000 voters per constituency.
In contrast, Sabah and Sarawak have between 65,000 and 76,000 voters per parliamentary seat — about half the average in Selangor — giving them proportionally higher representation. Azmi described this as “overrepresentation.”
He explained that the Federal Constitution allows flexibility in constituency redelineation, taking into account geography, population density and the challenges of large rural areas.
“If a rural constituency is vast but sparsely populated, forcing equal numbers could result in an unmanageably large area and be unfair to its representative,” he said.
Azmi stressed that while the EC is responsible for reviewing and redrawing constituency boundaries after the statutory eight-year period, any decision to increase the number of parliamentary or state assembly seats rests with Parliament and state legislatures.
“Our duty is to ensure that constituency sizes are fair and justifiable,” he said.
On Sabah and Sarawak, Azmi noted that although the two states are overrepresented, the arrangement is constitutional and should not be questioned. Together, they make up about 16 per cent of the population but hold 25 per cent of parliamentary seats.
He added that flexibility is essential to strike a balance between urban and rural representation, particularly in geographically large states such as Sabah and Sarawak.
Sarawak has already approved the creation of 17 additional state seats, bringing its total to 99, while Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia are expected to be considered in future redelineation exercises.
