KUANTAN, March 27 — The Pahang state government is ready to table an anti-party hopping bill at the State Legislative Assembly if it gets the support of the opposition, says Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail.
“We are thinking about it (the Bill) because if tabled, we need two-thirds support (to have it passed) and the current (state) government does not have enough numbers for that.
“We will get their (the opposition’s) consent first… if they agree, we will table it,” he said at a press conference after launching the Bantuan Prihatin Pahang (BPP) 2023 aid for Year One pupils at SK Mat Kilau here today.
The State Assembly is expected to convene in May.
The support of the opposition is necessary to get a two-thirds majority vote as following the 15th General Election (GE) Barisan Nasional (BN) obtained 17 seats, Perikatan Nasional (17 seats) and Pakatan Harapan (7 seats). The current Pahang government comprises BN and PH, with a majority of 25 seats.
Pahang is among the states that have not adopted the anti-party hopping law for assemblymen since it came into force at the Federal level on Oct 5, 2022, after being passed by the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara and receiving the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Commenting on today’s programme, Wan Rosdy said the state government had allocated BPP amounting to RM2.514 million for 25,146 Year One pupils (RM100 per student) to be distributed from today until April 7 in all 540 primary schools in Pahang.
This year, the state government has allocated RM42.4 million for BPP, an increase of RM8 million from last year, to benefit 218,193 individuals from various target groups.
The BPP was introduced in 2020 in line with the state government’s desire to return the state’s revenue and profits back to the people through the provision of various forms of assistance.
