by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Thursday, July 15, 1993:
DAP hopes that the second set of proposals by the Election Commission for constituency redelineation would take into account the objections which the DAP had made against the first set of proposals, which were cancelled when the DAP challenged it in court
Election Commission Chairman, Datuk Harun Din, said yesterday that the Election Commission will begin its electoral constituency redelineation exercise on July 23.
This confirms what I said in the Penang State Assembly last Tuesday on July 13 when I introduced my private member’s bill to amend the Penang State Constitution to increase six State Assembly seats for Penang State. I had said that the Election Commission’s new proposals for the redelineation of electoral constituencies would be gazetted in ten days’ time.
The first set of proposals for constituency redelineation gazetted by the Election Commission last November- was cancelled when the DAP challenged it. in court, on the grounds that the Election Commission had firstly violated the constitutional stipulation that there should not be a review until the expiry of eight years from the previous review; secondly, violated the democratic principle of ‘one-man, one-vote1; and thirdly, breached the constitutional provision that, the Election Commission should be an independent body which did not bow down to pressures from any quarter, in particular UMNO.
DAP hopes that the second set of proposals by the Election Commission for the redelineation of electoral constituencies which would be gazetted on July 23 would have taken into account the objections which the DAP had made with regard to the first set of proposals.