KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — A Member of Parliament elected by the people through a general election will lose the seat that was won, if he or she switches party or commonly known as party hopping.
The matter is contained in the Constitution (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) on the provision of the Prohibition of Members of Parliament from Party Hopping which was tabled for a second reading by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The enacted Constitutional Amendment contains four paragraphs and six clauses, with four of them being new clauses.
“The New Clause 4 aims to insert a new Article 49A into the Federal Constitution to provide that a Member of the House of Representatives shall cease to be a member of the House and his/her seat shall become vacant as soon as a contingency vacancy date is determined by the Speaker of the House,” said Ismail Sabri.
He said the same applies to Independent MPs who after being elected to the House of Representatives, joins a political party.
“Any Member of Parliament who switches to another political party or who leaves the political party of which he was a candidate during the election to become an Independent MP, will cease to be a Member of the Dewan Rakyat and will have to vacate his/her seat,” he said.
Ismail Sabri however said, a Member of Parliament will not lose his seat if he/she was dismissed by his/her party or if his /her political party is dissolved or deregistered.
The bill also repeals the five-year ban on those who resign as members of parliament.
“The new Clause 3 aims to delete Clause (6) of Article 48. This deletion will allow any Member of the House of Representatives who renounces his/her membership to contest again at any time after he/she renounces membership in the House of Representatives and as such the five-year ban on contesting, no longer applies,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said also included in the bill is the authority of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to make this law applicable at the state level through a gazette, with the permission of the head of state.
Paragraph 1 is to include the authority of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to set the effective date of the proposed Act in relation to clause 6, which is, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, with the consent of the Ruler or Governor of a State, set the date for the clause to be enforced in the State.
“In other words, this paragraph gives the state government/legislative assembly the opportunity to implement the provisions prohibiting members of the Dewan Rakyat from switching parties through an amendment to the State Constitution, subject to the approval of the State Ruler or Governor,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said the Special Select Committee set up to make recommendations on an amendment to the Constitution regarding the prohibition on members of the Dewan Rakyat from switching political parties had given due consideration to all issues raised in relation to the bill.
This included the implications of drafting certain provisions related to the matter.
“The Committee also received written views from various parties including NGOs, CSOs, academicians and political parties, among them the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH), Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) and Malaysia 5 Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR).
“All inputs and views received from members of the Cabinet, NGOs, CSOs, academics and political parties were examined and discussed in the Select Committee meetings,” he said.
