PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan will support the anti-party hopping Bill as the proposed law is in line with its aspiration to outlaw party hopping, says Pakatan secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Saifuddin said during Pakatan’s engagements with the government, the Opposition representatives gave their input to assist the government in tabling the law.
He said the Opposition and the government had been working on the draft for months and Pakatan looked forward to it being tabled.
“We have always pursued a policy like this,” he said, adding that this was possible because of the MOU between the Barisan Nasional/Perikatan Nasional Federal Government and Pakatan last September.
The anti-party hopping Bill is expected to be tabled at a special Dewan Rakyat sitting on April 11.
The Bill was supposed to be tabled before the last Parliament meeting ended on March 24.
But on March 18, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar announced that the move would be delayed or the Bill could be tabled later during a special Dewan Rakyat sitting.He said the Cabinet felt the proposed Bill still required further consultations with other stakeholders, particularly Barisan and Perikatan.
On Wednesday, Wan Junaidi said there were a few criteria that defined party hopping by a Member of Parliament (MP) in the administrative draft of the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill.
He told the Dewan Negara that one of the criteria is when an MP announces he is leaving the political party he contested for in an election to be an independent member or to join another political party.The other is when an MP is expelled from the political party. This is for the purpose of ensuring that MPs abide by the party’s constitution, rules and regulations.
Wan Junaidi said the law would also apply to Independent MPs who announced they were joining a political party after their victory.
It is learnt that some Bersatu Cabinet ministers have voiced concerns over the Bill’s wording. Among others, they questioned whether an MP who is expelled from his party would be considered party hopping.Umno has indicated its acceptance of the draft of the Bill as tabled by Wan Junaidi.
The proposed Bill came after several defections by elected representatives following the general election in May 2018, initially involving several former Umno MPs who joined Bersatu.
The party-hopping phenomenon would later intensify during the “Sheraton Move”, a week-long political impasse that saw the exit of Bersatu and 11 MPs from PKR, triggering the collapse of the Pakatan government.