Baku:Sarawak There is currently no proposal from the Election Commission (EC) to increase Sarawak's parliamentary seats, as the necessary constitutional process has not been completed. This was stated by Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, the Deputy Minister in the Premier's Department (Law, MA63 and State-Federal Relations).

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the Federal government's agreement in principle to expand the parliamentary representation of Sabah and Sarawak marks only the beginning of a constitutional process. The composition of the Dewan Rakyat is determined by Article 46 of the Federal Constitution, which mandates that any increase for Sabah and Sarawak requires a constitutional amendment passed by a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Following this, delimitation is conducted by the EC under Article 113 and the Thirteenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.

Sharifah Hasidah explained that no additional parliamentary seats can be established until the constitutional process is complete. This clarifies the EC's earlier statement about the absence of a proposal to increase Sarawak's parliamentary constituencies, emphasizing that the Federal Government's agreement in principle and the EC's statement refer to different stages of the same process.

She further clarified that the proposed increase in parliamentary representation is separate from Sarawak's state constituency expansion, which aims to increase the number of DUN seats from 82 to 99. The increase in state assembly seats was approved by the DUN last year, with the EC currently overseeing the Sarawak redelineation review. The public inspection for this redelineation exercise was scheduled from September 1 to 30 this year, though the EC has indicated that the new state constituencies might not be ready in time for the next Sarawak state election.