General : No EC Proposal Yet On Sarawak Seats Until Constitutional Process Completed

KUCHING: As of now, the Election Commission (EC) has not proposed to increase Sarawak's parliamentary seats, pending the completion of the necessary constitutional process, stated Deputy Minister Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali. The Federal Government's agreement in principle to expand Sabah and Sarawak's parliamentary representation marks the start of this process.

To augment the representation in Sabah and Sarawak, a constitutional amendment with a two-thirds majority in Parliament is required, as per Article 46 of the Federal Constitution. Subsequently, delimitation is executed by the EC under Article 113 and the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution. Sharifah Hasidah explained that no additional parliamentary seats can be established until this constitutional process concludes, which accounts for the EC's prior declaration of no proposal for increasing Sarawak's parliamentary constituencies.

Until these steps are fully accomplished, no additional parliamentary seats exist legally. The proposed rise in parliamentary representation is separate from Sarawak's state constituency expansion, which would escalate the number of state seats from 82 to 99. This increase in seats was endorsed by the state legislative assembly last year.

The EC is presently conducting a redelineation review in Sarawak, with the public inspection set from September 1 to 30. Nevertheless, the EC has signaled that the newly constituted state constituencies may not be prepared for the upcoming Sarawak state election.