LETTER | Pandemic a wake up call to do away with malapportionment

LETTER | In times of a crisis, such as the current one that we are experiencing, as citizens, we tend to first look to our Member of Parliament and/or member of the state legislative assembly for help. 

For obvious reasons in that we may not have any direct communication with the federal government of the day. So, we look for our MPs and state assemblypersons.

Our MPs/assemblypersons would definitely be under tremendous pressure to step up their efforts in helping their respective constituents. 

In normal times, we tend to take this for granted and sometimes are not even sure how many constituents our MPs/assemblypersons represent.

Now, with this Covid-19 pandemic, MPs/assemblypersons must definitely agree that malapportionment is something that has to be looked into.

Why, one would ask. The answer is obvious. 

If there is malapportionment, one MP will have two, three, four or even five times more constituents to look after as opposed to his/her other colleagues.

Article 116(1) of the Federal Constitution states:

116. (1) For the election of members to the House of Representatives, a unit of review shall be divided into constituencies in accordance with the provisions contained in the Thirteenth Schedule.

Clause (2)(c ) of the Thirteenth Schedule to the Federal Constitution states:

2(c). The number of electors within each constituency in a state ought to be approximately equal except that, having regard to the greater difficulty of reaching electors in the country districts and the other disadvantages facing rural constituencies, a measure of weightage for area ought to be given to such constituencies.

The key words are "approximately equal". 

Surely Members of Parliament must now be questioning the imbalance.

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