Kota Kinabalu: Parti Solidariti Tanah Air Ku (Star) has proposed adding 14 to 17 new State Legislative Assembly (DUN) seats in Sabah.
Party President Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said this follows the recent approval of additional DUN seats in Sarawak and Sabah should take similar action.
“Since Sarawak has started (passed the Bill to add DUN seats), we should do the same thing. I will raise this issue at the coming Cabinet meeting.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“My estimate is that between 14 and 17 new seats need to be added,” he said when met at the “Oppa” Film Screening on Scam Awareness at the Marina Club, Sunday.
Also present was Luyang Star Division Chief Eliza Leong, who is also Persatuan Inspirasi Sabah President who organised the event.
Jeffrey, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, said the proposal serves as a stepping stone to increase the number of parliamentary seats in Sabah in the future, particularly in the Borneo region.
He noted that Sabah and Sarawak currently have 25 and 31 parliamentary seats respectively, representing about 25 per cent of the total 222 parliamentary seats.
“This means Peninsular Malaysia already has more than a two-thirds advantage (in parliament), while Sabah-Sarawak only have 56 parliamentary seats and we have agreed to change this situation.
“Before that, we need to first increase the number of DUN seats in Sabah and we expect an addition of around 34 new parliamentary seats (in Sabah), in my opinion,” he said.
In another development, Jeffrey hopes the Technical Meeting on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) scheduled for today (July 14) will reach a resolution on the issue of returning 40 per cent net revenue to Sabah.
He said this should be fulfilled as stipulated in the Federal Constitution and implemented, but the matter has been dragging on for more than 40 years without the required five-yearly review.
“The 40 per cent net revenue is not about petroleum royalty, this involves revenue from all sources such as business and so on obtained from Sabah and the Federation.
“Sixty per cent belongs to the Federal Government, while 40 per cent returns to us (Sabah) and the Federal Government must determine an appropriate amount (for that 40 per cent) and Sabah will also present the amount based on records,” he said.
“Therefore, I hope the MA63 Technical Meeting will reach a resolution on this 40 per cent issue and subsequently implement it as stipulated in the Constitution,” he said.