A group of 100 Lembah Pantai voters led by their MP Nurul Izzah Anwar have submitted their objections to the Election Commission’s (EC) second redelineation proposal for the constituency.

Nurul Izzah said that while there had been objections during the first proposal that had been adopted into the second proposal, there is still neither justification nor rationale provided for some of the changes that still remain in the proposal.

Among others, the Bukit Aman police headquarters would fall under the Lembah Pantai constituency under the proposed boundaries, instead of its current constituency of Segambut.

“Can you imagine that for Malaysian voters to go against this ridiculous suggestion such as the Bukit Aman police station? You know it is nowhere near the constituency of Lembah Pantai, yet we are all forced to explain this basic information to the EC,” she told reporters before submitting the objections to the EC’s Federal Territories office this morning.

“There are some changes that they took on (for the second proposal), but again, is no justification or rationale as to why this took place.

“I would like to have a clear-cut answer - an explanation - beginning with the two topographic specialists,” she added.

Under Article 115(2) of the Federal Constitution, the EC is required to seek the advice of two federal government officers with ‘special knowledge’ of the topography and population distribution of the constituency being delimited.

The constitution states that such officers are to be selected by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, but is silent on whether or not such officers are to be publicly named.

The EC’s second redelineation proposal for Peninsular Malaysia (except Selangor) was gazetted on March 8. This signals the start of a one-month period where objections to the proposal can be lodged.

Only the affected state governments, local governments, and groups of 100 voters may lodge objections.

A local enquiry would then be conducted by the EC to hear those objections, but this can only be done twice. The first round of hearings for the had been conducted from Oct 31 last year to Feb 28 this year.

Nurul Izzah lamented that it has not been easy to collect the names of 100 Lembah Pantai voters to object the redelineation proposal for the constituency.

“We have 100 names. It was not an easy process. The names are of people who reside in Lembah Pantai and are voting there.

“It was not easy – 100 names, just to fight against a process that is pathetic, unconstitutional, by the EC.

“And the EC doesn’t even have the decency to produce the two topographic experts,” she said.

The inclusion of Bukit Aman in Lembah Pantai had been contentious since the EC’s first redelineation for the current round of redelineation, where it first appeared.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng had claimed that the move would score him a bigger victory in Segambut at the next election, but this could cost Nurul Izzah her Lembah Pantai seat. This is because the police tended to vote for BN.

During the last election, Lim had won his seat with a resounding 19,199-vote majority, whereas Nurul Izzah won with a much slimmer 1,847-vote majority.

There are 6,598 voters in Tasik Perdana polling district that encompasses Bukit Aman. Lim had claimed that he lost this area by over 6,000 votes.