Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (C) arrives at the Parliament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 28, 2018. The Malaysian parliament on Wednesday passed a motion to redraw the electoral map, as both the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and the opposition parties are gearing up to contest the 222 seats nationwide in a general election expected to take place in the next few weeks. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian parliament on Wednesday passed a motion to redraw the electoral map, as both the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and the opposition parties are gearing up to contest the 222 seats nationwide in a general election expected to take place in the next few weeks.

The motion was passed in a 129-80 vote during a heated parliament session which saw opposition lawmakers stand up in succession to refuse the bill to be tabled for a vote. They claimed that the re-delineated map favors the incumbent government by packing opposition supporters to larger constituencies and downsize BN-controlled ones.

For instance, the constituency in Sungai Buloh will see a reduction of voters from 128,000 to 73,000, according to a report from the Star newspaper.

Among the 222 seats listed in the report by the Malaysian Election Commission, only constituencies in the northern state of Perlis and Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative capital, remained unchanged.

But Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, when tabling the map on Wednesday, said the new map will enable elected representatives to deliver their services more efficiently and effectively in their respective constituencies.

"This also dismisses the wrong perceptions and baseless allegations that the recommendations only favor certain quarters," Najib told the parliament.

He noted that the recommendations did not propose any change to the number of parliamentary and state constituencies but only suggested renaming 12 parliamentary and 28 state seats.

Hundreds of protesters, including Mahathir Mohamad, a former prime minister-turned opposition leader, gathered outside the Parliament in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday morning, calling for the re-delineated maps to be withdrawn.

A heavy police presence, including riot police, were also seen outside the parliament, though confrontation did not take place.

The tenure of the current parliament will end by June and it is widely expected that Najib will call an election in the next few weeks.?