Did Najib just pocket the Malaysian election? Opposition uproar as Barisan Nasional forces through boundary changes
Prime minister uses majority to ensure drastic redrawing of constituency boundaries in Pakatan Harapan strongholds – firing the starting gun for general election and signalling dissolution of parliament within days
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government on Wednesday pushed through controversial changes to the country’s constituency boundaries, a move opposition lawmakers immediately slammed as an attempt to steal a general election expected to be held within weeks.
Najib’s Barisan Nasional used its majority in the 222-seat legislature to force through the new constituency boundaries late in the afternoon, just hours after it was tabled.
The former premier Mahathir Mohamad, who leads the opposition after defecting from Barisan Nasional in 2016, said at a protest rally before the vote that “these coming elections will most certainly not be clean”.
At the event near parliament, Mahathir decried the premier as a “monster” and a “rogue” for forcing through the changes. The pro-democracy activist Maria Chin was quoted as saying the new electoral map was the “biggest cheating to ever happen”.
Inside the legislature’s chambers, Speaker of Parliament Pandikar Amin Mulia offered lawmakers ten minutes each to debate the issue, with a total of 14 lawmakers from both sides taking part.
Raucous proceedings saw opposition lawmakers hold up signs with the phrase “rise up to stop cheating,” when the speaker called for a vote.