KUCHING: No new parliamentary seats will be introduced before the 16th General Election (GE16), even if the Dewan Rakyat approves the allocation of one-third of seats for Sabah and Sarawak.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said today the issue was being discussed between the federal attorney-general and the attorneys-general of Sabah and Sarawak.
He said they will submit a report on their discussion to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Technical Committee in the first quarter of next year.
"We have left it to the three government legal advisers to discuss the legal interpretation (on adding more seats) and how to finalise the studies conducted by the Election Commission (EC).
"In the first quarter of next year, we will receive a report from them, which will be presented in the MA63 Action Implementation Council.
"As such, it will not be implemented in time before the next general election as there are many more processes, such as EC matters, gazettement and taking it to Parliament for a constitutional amendment."
He said this after attending a programme in Kampung Semariang Batu here.
The Inter-Governmental Committee Report 1962 and MA63 stated that the regions of Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore collectively held 35 per cent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
However, after Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, the allocation was not adjusted.
In September 2022, the special cabinet committee on MA63 agreed to address the issue.
On Sept 29 this year, Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Abang Openg called on the federal government to return the 35 per cent, or one-third quota, of parliament representation to Sabah and Sarawak.
He said this was to avoid Parliament from having to amend the Federal Constitution, which would affect Sarawak and Sabah's interests.
"During Malaysia's formation, the formation of parliamentary seats from Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah exceeded one third.
"However, when Singapore split from Malaysia, its parliamentary seats were taken by the peninsula without being distributed to Sarawak and Sabah.
"The interests and rights of Sarawak and Sabah would not be preserved as our collective seats in Parliament are less than one third," he was quoted as saying.
The issue was discussed in a MA63 Action Implementation Council meeting in September, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Sarawak and Sabah hold 56 parliamentary seats — 31 in Sarawak and 25 in Sabah — amounting to 25 per cent of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
Achieving the one-third quota promised 61 years ago in MA63 would require Sabah and Sarawak having 74 seats, an additional 22.
In a parliamentary reply on Nov 8, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh said the electoral redelineation process for the peninsula will begin in 2026.
The redelineation process in Sarawak began last year, and Sabah's will begin in 2025.
Then EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Salleh, on Jan 1, said the commission had no plans to review the redelineation process for the peninsula and Sabah as the period remained valid.
He said for Sarawak, the EC was studying the suitability of conducting the exercise.
He said redelineation could be done only eight years after the end of the last study, or if there is an amendment to the composition of the Dewan Rakyat or state assemblies.
The last redelineation study was conducted in 2018 for the peninsula, in 2015 for Sarawak, and in 2017 for Sabah.