JOHOR BARU: Claims that electoral boundaries will be gerrymandered to create more safe seats for the unity government parties are propaganda meant to sway Umno voters in Johor’s twin by-elections, says Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan (pic).
The Umno deputy president and unity government minister said this claim was being spread by Perikatan Nasional in order to sway the party’s supporters away from Pakatan Harapan.
Umno, which leads the Barisan Nasional coalition, is allied with Pakatan which is contesting against Perikatan for the Pulai parliamentary and Simpang Jeram state seats.“These (gerrymandering) claims are nothing more than ill-intended last-minute propaganda to create havoc or incite fear among voters, especially Umno supporters,” Mohamad said, referring to these allegations which were started by Perikatan on Saturday.
“To them, they already have solid ‘hardcore’ supporters from PAS, and what they are aiming for right now is for our supporters to either vote for their candidate or not vote,” he said, referring to Perikatan party PAS, whose candidate Dr Mazri Yahya is running in Simpang Jeram.
Mohamad said this during a campaign stop with Pakatan’s Pulai candidate Suhaizan Kayat at Warung Fendi Taman Cempaka yesterday.
While campaigning for Perikatan on Saturday, its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin claimed that if Pakatan wins the Pulai parliamentary seat on Sept 9 it will retain its two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
Pakatan will then use this super majority to amend electoral boundaries and increase the current 222-seat Parliament by another 78 seats to 300.
“Gerrymandering will happen when they break up the constituency that does not support them and add seats in areas that support them. The urban areas are populated by Chinese. A large chunk of those areas do not support us,” Muhyiddin had said.
Electoral redelineations are conducted by the Election Commission every eight years and the new boundaries and seats are first proposed to the government before they are approved by Parliament.
Mohamad said Umno will scrutinise any future proposal for new electoral boundaries to ensure that it does not dilute the political power of Malay Muslims.
“Umno is not only representing Malays but also the bumiputra and Islam. If any suggestions that will negatively affect the position of these three are made, we will not support them.
“And if any parties under the coalition reject an idea, it will no longer be valid,” he said.
