INCREASING PARLIAMENTARY SEATS FOR SABAH, SARAWAK IN LINE WITH MA63 - HAJIJI

TUARAN, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- The federal government's agreement in principle to increase the number of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak is in line with the requirements of Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) chairman said the announcement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was a positive step in realising the demands of MA63 and he welcomed the government's agreement on it.

"This is certainly what Sabah and Sarawak have been waiting for to get the additional parliamentary seats. Sabah and Sarawak are two fairly large states and should be given special consideration for us to add these parliamentary seats.

"It is also as stated in MA63 where Sabah and Sarawak have at least one-third of the number of seats in Parliament," he said in a statement after a meeting with the GRS Sulaman election machinery in Kampung Lok Batik here, today.

Earlier, the Prime Minister today said the government had in principle agreed to increase the number of parliamentary seats for Sabah and Sarawak taking into account the number of voters in the two states.

The Prime Minister said that so far there was no commitment to increase the number of parliamentary seats in Sabah and Sarawak up to one-third of the total seats, but the government was committed to increasing the number of seats according to need.

Hajiji said the additional seats were also needed since the parliamentary constituencies in Sabah were also experiencing an increase in population, such as in Kinabatangan, which is as large as Pahang but only has one parliamentary seat.

In addition, he said the Tuaran parliament constituency also has an area as large as the state of Perlis.

"Thank you to the Prime Minister," he said.

Sabah and Sarawak have 25 and 31 parliamentary seats respectively.

-- BERNAMA