25. Elections
(1) Article 114 should be amended to provide for the appointment of an additional member of the Election Commission. An assurance will be given that he will be appointed from the Borneo States.
(2) Initially members of the House of Representatives for a Borneo State will be elected by the Legislative Assembly of the State, and the Federal Constitution should so provide. The Federal Constitution should require the Head of State of each State, with the concurrence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, to provide by regulations for the procedure to be followed by the State Assembly in electing members of the House of Representatives; and the procedure may be such as to require or not to require that members of the House of Representatives are elected from among the members of the Assembly. The Committee recommends that consideration should be given to a procedure designed to result in representation reflecting the political composition of the State Assembly.
(3) During an initial period after Malaysia Day elections to the State Assemblies should be indirect and during this period elections to the State Assemblies should be a matter on the Concurrent List and not included in item 6(a) of the Federal List.
(4) The Federal Constitution should provide that direct elections will be introduced in each Borneo State for —
held after the fifth anniversary of Malaysia Day or such earlier date as the Federal Government may, in relation to either State, prescribe with the concurrence of the Government of that State. With effect from this date elections to the State Assemblies should become a matter included in item 6 (a) of the Federal List. In order to enable the first constituencies to be delimited for the purpose of the first direct elections the Federal Constitution should enable the Federal Government to require the Election Commission to consider and make recommendations on the division of a Borneo State into constituencies for the purpose of elections to the House of Representatives or the Legislative Assembly within such time as the Federal Government may specify. Provisions on the lines of the Thirteenth Schedule to the existing Federal Constitution should apply to this first delimitation (The total number of members of the House of Representatives to be elected in each Borneo State will be specified in the Constitution itself―see paragraph 19 above).
(5) When the first constituencies have been delimited, it will be necessary for the Election Commission to prepare electoral rolls for each constituency, and the federal legislation governing the procedure to be followed by the Commission in discharging this function will need to be extended, with any necessary modifications, to the Borneo States concerned, as also will the federal legislation governing the conduct of elections to the House of Representatives and the Legislative Assemblies of the States.