EC questioned on why new seat not created in Paya Terubong constituency

GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has questioned the Election Commission (EC) on why a new seat was not created from the Paya Terubong state constituency for a more equitable distribution of voters.
This was posed to the EC on Friday at the public hearing session on the delineation exercise.
Penang Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh disclosed this as he and Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow had accompanied Lim for the meeting.
He said the Paya Terubong seat had some 40,000 voters while nearby Air Putih state seat had some 12,000 voters.
Jagdeep added the Federal Constitution called for constituencies to have equal number of voters as possible and described the situation in those two seats as an "acute situation of inequality between seats".
"The gap is 3.67 times more between the two in comparison and Lim asked why did the EC not see fit to create a new seat," he said in a press conference today.
Jagdeep said Chow argued that something had to be done as voters in Paya Terubong have increased over time.
Noting that delineation exercises were conducted once every eight to 10 years, Chow said voters at Paya Terubong may increase to 50,000 or 60,000 by then.
"This is like a parliamentary seat, how can a state seat have more voters than a parliamentary seat?," Jagdeep said, adding that the EC is scheduled to get back to him on this issue in a month or two.