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Malaysia’s First-Past-the-Post Electoral System 213

members sixteen should be elected in North Borneo [Sabah] and twenty-four
in Sarawak. e proportion that the number of seats allocated respectively
to Sarawak and to North Borneo bears to the total number of seats in the
House should not be reduced (except by reason of the granting of seats to any
other new State) during a period of seven years after Malaysia Day without
the concurrence of the Government of the State concerned, and thereafter
(except as aforesaid) shall be subject to Article 159 (3) of the existing Federal
Constitution (which requires Bills making amendments to the Constitution to
be supported in each House of Parliament by the votes of not less than two-
thirds of the total number of members of that House).
Collectively, the new states were given 55 seats (disproportionally distributed
among them), vis-à-vis Malaya’s 104, to give them a one-third veto power
4
(Table 11.1).
e allocation of seats under Article 46 is both idiosyncratic and
undemocratic, because the lower house in a parliamentary system is to re ect
the popular will and deliberate disproportionality undermines the political
equality of citizens. Federations may over-represent smaller or special states,
but normally through the upper house, which serves as the guardian of state
interests. (In line with international norms, e orts to empower Sabah and
5
Sarawak would be better directed at an elected and empowered Senate, in
which the two states and Labuan could legitimately be granted su cient seats
for a collective veto.) Subsequent amendment in 1973 made Article 46 worse,
by specifying parliamentary seats for each state and federal territory, not just
Sabah, Sarawak, and West Malaysia as a whole.

Table 11.1 e deliberate inter-regional malapportionment in 1963

Territory Population Population Parliamentary Parliamentary Over/under-
as of end share (%) constituencies, constituencies, representation
1964 number share (%) by population
West 7,919,055 71.41 104 65.41 0.92
Malaysia
Singapore 1,844,200 16.63 15 9.43 0.57
Sarawak 819,808 7.39 24 15.09 2.04
Sabah 506,628 4.57 16 10.06 2.20
Total 11,089,691 100.00 159 100.00 1.00
Source for population data: Means 1976: 294, Table 12.

Expansion of the legislature became partner to interstate malapportionment,
as the number of federal and state seats increased with constituency

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