In a statement, Bersih said with 5.8 million new voters being added, the weightage of an urban vote would be just one-sixth of a rural vote.

“Most new voters will be concentrated in densely populated areas in city centres, where job and education opportunities attract young voters.

“If a redelineation exercise is not carried out and there are no alternatives, many new voters will feel cheated. They will feel as though their votes are worthless compared to other voters,” it said.

Bersih added that redelineation could take place without waiting for the eight-year gap required under Article 113 (2) of the Federal Constitution.

In order to correct voter discrimination, Bersih said the Election Commission (EC) must reveal the number of new voters for each of the 222 parliamentary constituencies and 600 state constituencies so that all Malaysians could assess the scale of the problem.

“Secondly, the most ideal solution is to transfer seats from a state with fewer voters to a state with more voters without changing the number of seats in the peninsula and Borneo,” it said.

Bersih added that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Affairs should also review the necessary constitutional amendments to the 13th schedule of the Federal Constitution to avoid gerrymandering and unequal division between states.

It said, alternatively, the select committee can study constitutional amendments to reduce discrimination against young and urban voters.

Doing nothing to eliminate discrimination against new voters will be hypocrisy, even if parties continue to chant slogans in support of young people, it added.