Geoffrey Tang
KUCHING (June 29): Civil society Rise of Social Efforts (Rose) has launched its #KitaAdaNombor Delineation Campaign ahead of the anticipated re-delineation of Sarawak constituencies by the Election Commission (EC).
The campaign is an effort to raise public and voters’ awareness on what the re-delineation of constituency boundaries is about and how voters can participate and be involved in this exercise, said its coordinator Geoffrey Tang via a press statement yesterday.
Since the last review of election boundaries for Sarawak was completed in August 2015, EC can review these election boundaries anytime, he pointed out.
Tang said, in order to achieve equal and more meaningful representation of the people at State Legislative Assembly (and at Federal level) in accordance with 13th Schedule of Federal Constitution, Rose would like to propose that EC re-draw all 82 DUN (state constituencies) or 31 parliamentary constituencies so as to correct the problem of mal-apportionment and respect the principle of ‘One Person, One Vote, One Value (OPOVOV)’.
“The problem of gerrymandering in which politicians choose voters, instead of voters choosing politicians as their representatives, also needs to be corrected or avoided.
“Rose also seeks to inform voters on how they can participate in this democratic exercise in order to get improved representation by their elected representative (and hence improve their own lives and that of the community(ies) they belong to).
“Failure to participate can mean election outcomes are determined before the voters go to the polls to cast their votes,” Tang stressed.
After the implementation of automatic voter registration and Undi 18 at the beginning of 2022, voter population of Sarawak had increased by 79.5 per cent from 1,109,134 (in 2015 delineation) to 1,990,322 as of April 2024 and every month approximately 3,100 18-year old Sarawakian youths get added to the voter roll automatically.
It is therefore imperative for the EC to carry out a review now before the next Sarawak state election, he said.
Rose now invites all interested parties and members of the public including youths to follow this campaign over its social media platforms as follows; Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pemangkin_swk?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sarawakrose?mibextid=ZbWKwL, and/or Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@rosesarawak?_t=8nSJ2TuNMpk&_r=1.
The public are also invited to come to the Rose roadshows to be held in July on the following dates – July 6 in Miri; July 13 in Kuching; July 20 in Sibu and July 27 at Kota Samarahan.
The programme will include a public exhibition and forum discussion featuring invited panellists including people’s respective local elected representatives.
Rose will announce or give notice of the respective venues and opening time of each roadshow over its social media platforms, said Tang.
“The first in Miri on July 6 (a Saturday) will be at Miri from 6pm to 10pm and we have invited Miri MP Chiew Choon Man to be a guest panellist at the forum.
“We will also be raising funds for the above campaign and call on members of the public to support us by purchasing our limited edition ‘Democracy’ tote bag for RM50 each at the above roadshows,” he said.
The public are to donate directly to Rose’s bank account.
Tang can be reached at 016-3233361.