Ng Chak Ngoon | Danger in constituency seat increase
Very recently, rumour has it that Pakatan Rakyat politicians are being lobbied to support a proposal on increasing the number of constituencies, and that at least some are likely to be persuaded to go along with it.
While Pakatan politicians being lobbied is not at all surprising, the part about them being agreeable to it certainly is.
The first general election in the Federation of Malaya, as Peninsular Malaysia was then known, was held in 1959.
The Alliance, the forerunner of Barisan Nasional (BN), won it with a majority exceeding two-thirds, which enabled them to amend the constitution.
And amend the constitution they did. These amendments would enable them to hold on to power eternally.
Among the most important changes was the removal of three clauses in Article 116 which defined how constituencies had to be nearly equal in voter population and how deviation from the average size of constituencies must not exceed 15 percent.
With the removal of these constraints, constituency sizes can now be solely decided by the Election Commission (EC).
Full story: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/288423
