Hopelessly Confused By The Article "The"

I'm having a big problem understanding how to properly apply the article "the" before an abbreviation.

For instance, under what circumstances do I need to use the article "the" in an abbreviation.

And what about the name of electoral constituency. Should I write "in the Perai parliamentary seat" or will "Perai parliamentary seat" suffice?

Perhaps, I should start getting to know more about the article "the", starting from the basic. Maybe I can start doing so at the Online Writing Lab or OWL. By the way, in this case, do I need to say "the Online Writing Lab"?