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Malaysia’s First-Past-the-Post Electoral System 217

Table 11.4 e 2003–05 legislature expansion: Increase in seats before
amendment of the Federal Constitution
Peninsula and Sabah Sarawak
Labuan
Constituency redelimitation
1st notice of display 2002.08.08 2002.08.08 2005.01.07
2nd notice of display 2003.01.16 2002.12.26 2005.04.22
EC report submitted to prime 2003.03.21 2003.03.21 2005.06.10
minister
EC report laid before Parliament 2003.04.03 2003.04.03 2005.06.23
Draft order passed 2003.04.08 2003.04.08 2005.07.04
Order gazetted 2003.05.01 2003.05.01 2005.08.01
Seat increase
Amendment to Article 46 passed 2003.06.19 2003.06.19 2005.09.29
Amendment to Article 46 gazetted 2003.08.14 2003.08.14 2005.12.31

exercises, it produced a ve-class scale, expanded from the ‘urban’ and ‘rural’
references in section 2(c) (Table 11.5)—yet the EC did not even abide by
its own scheme. In Kedah, for example, the EC created a ‘metropolitan’
parliamentary constituency with 72,387 constituents in the hilly border town
of Baling, with 30 per cent more voters than Alor Setar (56,007 voters), the
state capital.
Malapportionment continued in 2015–18, although the guidelines
disappeared. Despite two rounds of public input, malapportionment hardly
declined and sometimes even worsened. Before the review, Malacca’s largest
parliamentary constituency, Bukit Katil, had 104,234 voters, or 2.17
times the 47,972 voters in the state’s smallest, Masjid Tanah. e EC’s rst
proposal made Kota Melaka the largest constituency, with 105,067 voters,
and kept Masjid Tanah untouched, yielding a ratio of 2.19. After the rst
round of objection and inquiry, its second proposal increased Kota Melaka
to 117,161 voters, while Masjid Tanah remained the same, yielding an even
higher ratio of 2.44. After the second round, and despite a legal challenge by
voters, the EC continued to expand Kota Melaka, to 120,071 voters, while
maintaining the super-small Masjid Tanah, raising the ratio to 2.50. Worsened
malapportionment similarly marked the delimitation exercises in Kedah,
Selangor, and Johor for parliamentary constituencies and in Terengganu and
Johor for state constituencies (Tables 11.6 and 11.7).

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