KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 1): The Election Commission (EC) has no plans to carry out a re-delineation of electoral boundaries for the states of Malaya and Sabah, as the Federal Constitution only allows the process to happen every eight years, says EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh.

The last time the country did so was in 2018, hence the re-delineation of electoral boundaries can only be done in 2026.

As for Sarawak, however, Abdul Ghani said the EC is considering and examining the appropriateness to carry out the process.

According to Article 113 of the Federal Constitution, there will be separate reviews for the states of Malaya (including the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya) as well as Sabah and Sarawak. It was reported that the eight-year period to conduct a re-delineation exercise in Sarawak would be in 2023, Sabah in 2025, and for other states in 2026. Delineation is the process of dividing the federation and states into the said constituencies.

In November last year, then deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department (law and institutional reforms) Ramkarpal Singh was reported as saying that the study on re-delineation of the electoral boundaries by the EC in Sarawak had started, and will be followed by Sabah in 2025, and in the peninsula in 2026. He said that the study would take about two years, after which a report containing the findings of the EC would be submitted to the prime minister.

In a statement on Monday, Abdul Ghani said a review of re-delineation of the electoral boundaries can only be conducted after eight years from the date of the last exercise, or when there are amendments to the composition of members of the Dewan Rakyat or state legislative assemblies.

In this regard, the last review of federal seats previously took place in 2018, just before the 14th general election, while that for Sarawak was done in 2015, and Sabah in 2017.

He added that a review of re-delineation of the electoral boundaries by the EC can only happen when there is notification to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker and the prime minister and the gazetting of a notice under Section 4(a) of the 13th Schedule of the Federal Constitution.