Media Statement
by Ean Yong Hian Wah, Political Secretary to DAP National Chairman
in Petaling Jaya
on 14 October 2002

Datuk Abdul Rashid should give a full report to the Dewan Rakyat after the study trip to Germany on the country’s electoral laws and parliamentary system together with a comprehensive proposal on how to improve the Malaysian electoral system


In early September, the Election Commission Chairman, Datuk Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, led a 12-member delegation to Germany to study its electoral system prior to the German federal elections on Sept 22. So far, we have heard nothing from the delegation although the German general election had ended on Sept 23.

The team, which comprised representatives from MCA, Gerakan and MIC, was to visit Berlin and several other major cities in Germany from Sept 7 to 14.

Germany is one of the countries in the world which practises a combination of First-Past-the-Post and Proportional Representative electoral system. Under this system, half of the representatives (from 328 constituencies) are elected into the Bundestag (Parliament) through direct voting, whereas the remaining 328 seats are filled by successful candidates by way of party list (proportional representation).

Under this system, each eligible voter will be given two votes. The first vote is to choose a representative from his constituency and the second vote is to elect representatives from the party lists to fill the federal seats. It is thus possible for one voter to cast his votes for different parties in an election.

The 2002 redelineation of parliamentary and state assembly electoral boundaries in Malaysia was the most unfair exercise in the history of the nation. The smallest parliamentary seat comprises only 85 voters (Putrajaya) whereas the largest parliamentary seat has a total number of 90,187 voters (Johore Bahru) – which means that one vote in Putrajaya is equivalent to 1,061 votes in Johore Bahru. This is most ridiculous and deviates totally from the basic democratic principle of one-man one-vote, one-value.

Datuk Abdul Rashid should therefore give a full report to the Dewan Rakyat on his study trip to Germany.

Furthermore, the Barisan Nasional government should seriously consider the proposal that Malaysia should implement a proportional representative system in the general elections in order to rectify the various faults and weaknesses in the current electoral system.