In a press statement on 1 May 2018, Charles Santiago, the incumbent parliamentarian for Klang in the politically-prized state of Selangor suggested the impact of gerrymandering would be “wide and far-reaching”. In fact the lawmaker had earlier filed an injunction to stop the redelineation process, but to no avail. He had suggested that a number of parliamentary constituencies in the state, such as Shah Alam and Kapar, both parliamentary seats, and Port Klang, a state seat, could return to Barisan Nasional (BN) because of the redelineation.

A total of 40,983 voters from Shah Alam and Kapar parliamentary constituencies have been moved to Klang. This would turn the two parliamentary seats and one state seat from being safe to become marginal seats for the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH).

… Johan Saravanamuttu is Adjunct Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This article is part of an RSIS Series on the 14th Malaysian General Election.