Abdul Karim flays Violet over seat comments

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SIBU: Asajaya assemblyman Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah on Wednesday blasted the Pending assemblywoman for politicising the proposal to increase state constituencies as a move to accommodate Barisan Nasional (BN) parties.

Abdul Karim, who is assistant minister of youth development, described her criticism as cheap excuse and mere allegation.

When debating the Dewan Undangan Negeri (Composition of Membership) Bill, 2014 at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Tuesday, Violet Yong said internal conflicts within BN should be dealt with internally instead of abusing the system by creating more state seats to accommodate unhappy component parties.

To Yong, the tabling of the Bill to have 11 more seats was a way for BN to solve the impasse over seat allocation in state BN caused by the registration of Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) and United People’s Party (UPP).

She claimed an increase in seats would likely allow BN to win the next state election with a simple majority despite capturing lower percentage of votes.

To this, Abdul Karim said: “Violet seems to not know when, why and how new constituencies are being created.

“She is too engrossed with petty politics and hatred of BN that even proposal to increase state constituencies are being politicised as to accommodate BN components’ allocation”.

He explained that under the Federal Constitution, new constituencies could be created after every eight years when needed.

He added that the authority responsible for the delineation is the Election Commission which is an independent and impartial agency and not the government of the day or any political party, including BN.