Commit to new, stronger anti-party hopping law, Putrajaya urged after latest tabling delay
KUCHING: The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) is urging the federal government to commit to tabling a new and stronger antiparty hopping law in the first week of the July parliamentary session.
In a statement, the Bersih steering committee said this is in view of reports that the federal Cabinet has yet again postponed the planned April 11 tabling of the Anti-Party Hopping Bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
“To avoid further delay, the Bill for an Anti-Hopping Recall Law (AHRL) tabled by Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said should be adopted for consultation and fine-tuning immediately.
“While we are of the view that an anti-hopping law (AHL) must be passed without delay, Bersih has also consistently voiced our reservations about the AHL in its current form, as reported in various media.
“The two handicaps of the AHL is, firstly, AHL cannot prevent coalition hopping and will not be effective to stem such political instability. Second, party leaders may abuse the AHL’s power by sacking dissident or rival lawmakers within their parties in order to vacate their seats,” said Bersih.
De facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi was reported by national daily The Star as confirming the governemnt had postponed the planned tabling of the Federal Constitution (Amendments) 2022 Bill on AntiParty Hopping and Limiting the Tenure of the Prime Minister.
Wan Junaidi was reported saying that the government needed more time to deliberate the definition of ‘party-hopping’.
The postponement came after Pakatan Harapan leaders on Tuesday pledged their commitment to support the Bill during the April 11 tabling.
Bersih said with the delay to further study the AHL, it called on all parties to adopt the AHRL which was formulated by Bersih and advanced for federal adoption by Azalina.
“In this design, the seat of any lawmaker can be vacated on the three grounds of party-hopping covered by the AHL – MPs leaving or getting expelled by their party; independent MPs joining a party; as well as coalition-hopping by parties which is not covered by AHL – if enough voters signed signatures to support a recall petition in 21 days.
“The signature threshold Bersih recommends is 40 per cent or half of the turnout rate in the last election. By leaving the decision to voters, the AHRL can overcome the two handicaps in the current proposed AHL,” it stated.
Additionally, Bersih said individual states must be given the freedom to explore and choose their preferred antihopping mechanism, which may be any variant of the AHL or AHRL.
“To enable state-level AHL, an amendment to Article 10 to bypass the 1992 Supreme Court verdict on Noordin Salleh that ruled the AHL unconstitutional should include the words ‘State Constitution’ and have this effect.
“Restrictions on the right to form associations conferred by paragraph (c) of Clause (1) relating to political party may be imposed by this Constitution and State Constitutions,” it said.