T HE theory is that in democracy it is the people who rule. This essentially requires that all voters have approximately equal voting power. If the votes of people residing in one constituency have twice the weight as compared to the votes of citizens residing in another constituency, then it would be hard to argue that the right to vote ofthe disadvantagedconsutuencyhas not been diluted.
Therefore, deviation exceeding 10-15 per cent creates a prima facie case of discrimination. The preliminary delimitation results are an illustration of such travesty. To demonstrate this anomaly, an example of Jacobabad and Tando Muhammad Khan can be analysed, where registered voters are 434,675 and 253,206, respectively. Consequently, a voter in Tando Muhammad Khan has almost twice as much weight as compared to a voter in Jacobabad, individual representation is, therefore, unequal and discriminatory.It would be prudent to revisit the delimitation already done. Before doing so the boundaries of districts should be redefined so that voters are equally distributed, and large portions of citizens are not disenfranchised.
