KLANG, June 14: Klang Member of Parliament, Ganabatirau Veraman, has called for a more fair electoral representation, saying that the country “cannot claim to uphold a fully fair and representative democracy when the value of a citizen’s vote differs drastically depending on where that citizen lives.”
In a recent statement, he said some of the country’s largest parliamentary constituencies such as Bangi, Damansara, Klang, Kota Raja and Petaling Jaya each had hundreds of thousands of registered voters, yet every one of these constituencies had only a single Member of Parliament.
At the same time, there are constituencies elsewhere in the country with significantly smaller voter populations that enjoy the exact same level of parliamentary representation, Ganabatirau said.
“The disparity is undeniable. Bangi today stands as the largest parliamentary constituency in Malaysia, with more than 300,000 registered voters, while certain rural constituencies have fewer than 30,000 voters. In practical democratic terms, this means that one vote cast in some constituencies can carry several times more political weight than a vote cast in major urban centres.
“This phenomenon is widely known as malapportionment; a condition where electoral boundaries create severe inequalities in representation despite every constituency electing the same number of representatives,” he said, adding that such distortions fundamentally undermine one of democracy’s most basic principles: that every citizen’s vote should carry equal value.
This imbalance did not happen overnight. Years of electoral boundary reviews, population migration, and outdated constituency boundaries have caused urban parliamentary seats to become increasingly overcrowded while electoral boundaries remain largely unchanged.
Previous redelineation exercises have only deepened these structural inequalities, creating oversized constituencies such as Damansara, Bangi and Klang while preserving significantly smaller seats elsewhere.
Ganabatirau also reiterated that the argument was not an attack on rural representation.
“Rural communities deserve strong and meaningful representation in Parliament. They face distinct challenges involving infrastructure, accessibility, connectivity, economic development and public services.
“However, protecting rural representation should never come at the expense of democratic equality.”
A mature democracy must be capable of balancing both objectives: safeguarding rural interests while ensuring that severe disparities in voter influence do not continue unchecked.
Malaysia’s Federal Constitution already provides mechanisms for periodic electoral boundary reviews. The next redelineation exercise presents a critical opportunity to correct these long-standing structural imbalances.
Oversized constituencies must be reviewed seriously and, where necessary, divided into smaller, more manageable parliamentary seats that better reflect actual population realities.
Electoral boundaries should be drawn based on transparent principles, demographic realities, and a constitutional commitment to fair representation not political convenience.
This would also restore public confidence in Malaysia’s democratic institutions, he said.
— WE