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Malaysia’s First-Past-the-Post Electoral System 219

Table 11.6 Malapportionment of parliamentary constituencies by state,
before and after 2015–18 delimitation exercises
State Before 1st 2nd Final
delimitation proposal proposal proposal
Perlis 1.20 1.20 1.20 1.20
Kedah 2.53 2.70 2.70 2.70
Kelantan 2.42 2.42 2.42 2.42
Terengganu 1.45 1.44 1.45 1.45
Penang 1.68 1.68 1.68 1.68
Perak 3.59 3.43 3.43 3.43
Pahang 2.93 2.93 2.93 2.93
Selangor 3.94 4.05 3.94 4.05
Kuala Lumpur 1.75 1.56 1.45 1.45
Negeri Sembilan 2.27 2.18 2.18 2.18
Malacca 2.17 2.19 2.44 2.50
Johor 3.05 3.08 3.17 3.17
West Malaysia, excluding 5.25 5.39 5.39 8.53
Putrajaya and Labuan
Sabah 2.40 2.22 2.22 2.22
Sarawak – 4.34 4.53 4.53
Note: e 2015 constituency delimitation exercise for Sarawak did not include pre-
delimitation electorate sizes.

e entry of new voters after the delimitation review only worsened
malapportionment for the 2018 election. In the nal delimitation proposal,
the nation’s largest parliamentary constituency was Damansara in Selangor,
with 150,439 voters. By May 2018, Damansara’s electorate had grown to
164,322, but Bangi, also in Selangor, overtook it as the nation’s largest, with
178,790 voters—nine times the 19,592 voters in Igan, Sarawak, the nation’s
smallest constituency. e government’s recent move to lower the voting age
to 18 years and implement automatic voter registration will only worsen this
problem.
Constituency malapportionment has been both excessive and partisan. e
largest 112 parliamentary constituencies contained 68 per cent of voters while
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the smallest 112 comprise only 33 per cent. eoretically, a party or coalition
could win a simple majority in Parliament with a mere 16.58 per cent of the
popular vote if they won just 50 per cent plus one vote in each of the smallest
112 constituencies. Undeniable proof of the EC’s partisan delimitation: the
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