By Shazna Sharidzaly

Reviewing the mechanics behind voter representation.

State elections are coming up, especially since Negeri Sembilan and Johor have called for early polls, so you’ve probably seen or heard a lot about political parties right now — go to any news channel’s Instagram and you’ll be bombarded with it. It’s alright if you’re confused because honestly, who isn’t confused sometimes?

This time there’s quite a salient issue going around, namely about redelineation. Redelineation refers to the drawing of new electoral boundaries due to malapportionment, which is the unequal distributions of voters among electorates. To put this into perspective, a lot of the discussion regarding redelineation centers around two constituencies: Bangi and Tebrau. In the 2022 general election, both electorates had 244,291 and 167,965 total votes by electors respectively (Federal Government Gazette, 2022). Compared to other constituencies such as Sabak Bernam (40,977) and Segamat (50,652), these numbers mean that voters in the latter constituencies receive better representation and services due to the smaller number of registered voters — as every constituency in Malaysia is represented by only one Member of Parliament (MP).

Having these new boundaries can make voting outcomes fairer and allow better services for the people. Along with the addition of seats for Sabah and Sarawak in parliament in the upcoming 16th General Election — although not meeting one-third of seats in parliament — Malaysians may be able to look forward to better representation. But what if we take things a step further?

A Big Change

Let’s try to imagine if Malaysia had a different electoral system altogether, one so different to the First-Past-the-Post system we’ve got going on, one where a plurality is not the be all and end all. What if we used a form of Proportional Representation (PR)?

There’s been a few articles pushing for the use of Proportional Representation as it ensures more voters are properly represented because their votes are not ‘wasted’ — in our current system, an MP can be elected into office with a 51% vote. This means that the remaining 49% of voters do not receive the representation that they want, which does not occur in a PR system. Basically, PR systems allow for more fairness, participation, and representation as it reduces the chances of a single party dominating the playing field — so much so that even Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has started using it for the first time in its 2025 central leadership election (Free Malaysia Today, 2025).

Now, it’s not that our usual First-Past-the-Post system is inherently bad – it’s just that it favours stronger parties as stated above, which is why Barisan Nasional and the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) stayed in power for so long.

But Malaysia might not take this change well even if it seems like the obvious solution to our current electoral system. People are already familiar with it, so why bother changing anything?

In theory, a plurality or majority system would lead to single-party governments such as in Australia, but that’s obviously not the case for us — both our current government and opposition are coalitions. Changing to a PR system might make parliament even more divided as parties gain seats based on their voter support, not just by mere plurality. For instance, if Party A wins an overall 60% of the national popular vote, then they will gain around 60% of seats in parliament. Conversely, in our electoral system, the number of seats won can be vastly different from the actual votes received. An example here — albeit an outdated one — would be the 2004 general election where Barisan Nasional won around 90% of seats with just 63.8% of the popular vote.

A PR system sounds fair and good, but again, it may lead to more fragmentation as many smaller parties stand a chance to be in parliament, so forming an actual government can take a longer time. Since the last general election was held during a period of high political instability, big changes with uncertain outcomes to the electoral system such as this — be it for state or federal elections — may further decrease public trust and support for many political parties. I do see voter turnouts increasing as people can truly reap the benefits of their vote, but this can also depend on whether there is a pressing issue among voters, not just the electoral system itself.

A Problem In Practice

All in all, it may solve some problems, but only on paper. In the real and practical side of things, it’s definitely not going to go as smoothly as we would like it to go, as all changes to a system are wont to be. Proposing to change to a PR system is kind of like putting a rug over some rocks and hoping it won’t feel uneven when you walk on it, if you get my drift. I suppose the first step towards a healthier democracy is to allow for the Electoral Commission to carry out delineation reviews every 8 years as per Article 113(2) of the Federal Constitution. It absolutely has to happen to ensure fairness, but I’m sure drawing up new boundaries is likely to attract its own unique, headache-inducing challenges. Time will tell.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PKR to have ‘proportional representation’ in leadership polls. (2025, April 23). Free Malaysia Today. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2025/04/23/pkr-to-use-proportional-representation-system-in-leadership-polls​

More Parliament seats for Sabah, S’wak before GE16, says Anwar. (2025, November 16). Free Malaysia Today. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2025/11/16/more-parliament-seats-for-sabah-swak-before-ge16-says-anwar​

​https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputp/1753254/PUB%20617%20PARLIMEN%20JOHOR.pdf​

​https://lom.agc.gov.my/ilims/upload/portal/akta/outputp/1753283/PUB612.pdf​

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