Shahrul Aman Mohd Saari, Yap Swee Seng, Chan Tsu Chong and Wong Chin Huat hold placards at a press conference in Petaling Jaya April 3, 2018. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

PETALING JAYA, April 3 — The general election could be won with only 16.5 per cent of the popular vote as a result of the new voting boundaries, electoral reform group Bersih 2.0 asserted today.

In a media briefing on the effects of the Election Commission’s redelineation, Bersih 2.0 steering committee member Wong Chin Huat said this conclusion was derived from votes needed to secure the 112 smallest federal constituencies in the country.

The simulation was conducted by applying the voter turnout and voting patterns from the 13th general election in 2013 to the new constituency sizes that were gazetted last week.

“Theoretically, Barisan Nasional (BN) needs only 16.5 per cent of the popular vote to win the election because they would have gotten 112 of the smallest parliamentary seats.

“For them to win 112 of the smallest seats, they only need to focus all their manpower and resources on 20 per cent of their seats (that they are contesting) and they can win,” Wong said.

The 112 seats are the minimum needed to secure a simple majority in Parliament.

The simulation does not use the current electoral rolls or non-voter figures.

Others on the briefing panel today included Bersih 2.0 executive director Yap Swee Seng, interim chairman Shahrul Aman Mohd Saari and outreach officer Chan Tsu Chong.

They noted that the redelineation has created massively sized constituencies with more than 100,000 voters each.

Bersih 2.0 also accused the EC of partisan gerrymandering as well as ethnic segregation.

“In Melaka, for example, five polling districts with strong Opposition support were transferred out from P137 Bukit Katil (a marginal constituency) and packed in P138 Kota Melaka which is an Opposition stronghold.

“Based on re-simulation of the 13th General Election voting patterns with the new boundaries after redelineation, P137 Bukit Katil will switch from an Opposition constituency into a ruling government constituency,” said Chan.

Shahrul Aman also warned that racial segregation apparent in the redelineation would be harmful to communal ties.

“One of the reasons behind the bloody racial riots on May 13, 1969 was economic activities drawn along racial lines.

“Now it seems that the EC has reversed that trend to fracture racial relations. Is EC heading towards racism?” he said.

Bersih 2.0 deduced that there are eight new Malay dominant constituencies: P59 Bukit Gantang (72.4 per cent Malay from 67.5 per cent); P74 Lumut (72 per cent from 54 per cent); P101 Hulu Langat (65 per cent from 54.1 per cent); P107 Subang (65.3 per cent from 47.5 per cent); P109 Kapar (70.7 per cent from 54.6 per cent); P121 Lembah Pantai (62.1 per cent from 57 per cent); P124 Bandar Tun Razak (61.1 per cent from 53.8 per cent) and; P137 Bukit Katil (62.4 per cent from 55 per cent).

The panel also demanded to know why 59 per cent of parliamentary constituencies including the whole of Pahang, Perlis and Penang were excluded from the redelineation exercise.

It pointed out that Penang and Pahang’s exclusions were unjustified from the “approximately equal apportionment” standpoint.