“IF AN election is voters choosing politicians, gerrymandering is politicians choosing voters,” explains Wong Chin Huat of the Penang Institute, a Malaysian think-tank, to a small group of concerned citizens. They are gathered in a windowless meeting room in Kuala Lumpur’s decrepit centre to bemoan the Election Commission’s (EC) redrawing of constituency boundaries. The new maps, Mr Wong explains, will help the ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, maintain its stranglehold on power after 44 years in office.
An election must be held by August. The last parliamentary session before the vote ends on April 5th. Before they adjourn, lawmakers are expected to vote on the new boundaries for their seats, which are filled on a first-past-the-post basis.
Malapportionment—the creation of seats of wildly unequal size—worries critics most. This involves packing urban and minority voters, who tend to support the opposition, into highly populated constituencies, while the largely rural...Continue reading
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