THE passage of an anti-hopping law in Parliament will restore public confidence in the country’s electoral system and give voters a reason to come out and vote during the 15th general election (GE15), said electoral reform group Bersih.
It said that Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob must table the proposed bill in the upcoming Parliament session on Feb 28 and ensure that it becomes law after considering the input of MPs, civil society organisations and the public.
“The passing of a law to prevent or deter party-hopping as soon as possible is one of the key terms of the Memorandum of Understanding for Transformation and Political Stability (MOU) signed between the Ismail Sabri government and Pakatan Harapan (PH),” the coalition noted in a statement.
“The commitment of the Government and the largest opposition bloc in parliament to implement the Anti-Hopping Law (AHL), Undi18, Prime Ministerial two-term limit, parliamentary reform and a range of other reforms are important not only to stabilise politics but also to strengthen our democracy.”
At the same time Bersih also acknowledged that the issue was “a complex one with many definitions, legal, intra-party and electoral considerations” and that finding a perfect solution was “near impossible”.
“But we are also of the view that in the wake of the Sheraton Move, where party-hopping caused the collapse of the Federal government twice and directly or indirectly triggered the change of eight state governments in the last two years, the enactment of a law to prevent party-hopping in Malaysia is an absolute necessity to restore political stability and even more important than that, the confidence of the Malaysian public in our democracy.”
According to the group, what would be considered party-hopping at its most basic should be that an elected representative leaving their party to join another party or going independent, and an independent representative joining a political party.
“At the same time, an elected representative resigns on their own volition from the party or seat and if a representative is sacked by their party.
“If any of these took place, their seat would be declared vacant automatically and a by-election will be called.”
It also said that although its preference was an anti-hopping recall law, it would support the enactment of the proposed bill, but hoped that Article 48(6), where a representative who resigned from their seat is barred from contesting for five years, was repealed.
This would allow a representative to resign as a matter of principle from their party and contest for the same seat to get a fresh mandate from voters.
The group went on to note that each state should have the freedom to enact their own anti-hopping laws.
“To this end, the amendment to Article 10 to allow restriction on freedom of association over party-hopping must include ‘State Constitutions’ alongside the ‘Federal Constitution’.
“At the same time, the Eighth Schedule of the Federal Constitution should not be amended to force a carbon copy of the Federal Parliament’s traditional anti-hopping law onto the states.” – Feb 17, 2022
