‘DUN seat hike no guarantee of Sarawak's one third representation in Parliament'

Borneo Post

a day ago

Wong King Yii
KUCHING (July 15): The claim by Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) that an additional 17 new state seats is necessary for Sarawak to achieve a one-third representation in Parliament is legally inaccurate, said Wong King Yii.
The Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (Dapsy) Sarawak treasurer pointed out that the Federal Constitution does not require Sarawak to increase its legislative assembly seats in order to achieve a one-third representation in the Dewan Rakyat.
'Any change to parliamentary representation must be done through a constitutional amendment under Article 46, with a two-thirds majority in Parliament, not by inflating state-level positions,' he said in a statement yesterday.
Wong said Sarawak's demand for greater parliamentary representation must be pursued through proper constitutional means.
According to him, a delineation exercise of electoral boundaries should always be based on voter parity, geographical accessibility, and administrative fairness, as set out in Schedule 13 of the Federal Constitution.
He pointed out that Sarawak has not experienced any significant population growth that would warrant an expansion of constituencies.
'At present, each Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state lawmaker receives RM9 million in public allocations each year, yet there is no transparency on how these funds are used.
'There has been no public audit, no constituency reports, and no accountability to the people of Sarawak.'
Given this, Wong claimed that adding 17 more state seats under this same opaque system would only worsen the situation.
'It risks further abuse of public funds, expands political patronage, and does nothing to improve service delivery to the rakyat. Instead of adding 17 more seats, the government should carry out a proper redelineation of the existing state constituencies.
'Many constituencies remain imbalanced in voter size, with some rural seats having just a few thousand voters, while urban seats carry more than five times that number,' he said.
He stressed that fairer electoral boundaries matter more than simply having more politicians.
In addition, he said a transparent redelineation process must ensure every vote carries equal weight, improve representation across both rural and urban areas, and restore public trust in the nation's democratic institutions.
Wong said Sarawakians deserve a government that values accountability over political expansion and prioritises public service over self-interest.
'The future of our democracy does not depend on how many seats we have but on how responsibly those seats are used,' he added. DAPSY lead new state seats one-third representation Wong King Yii