INTERESTING fact: Out of the six states that are gearing up for state elections in August this year, only five have some form of anti-party hopping law in place following amendments to their respective State Constitutions.
The five states in question are Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan while Terengganu has yet to implement the law.
For the first time (on state level, that is) the anti-party hopping law will be put to the test in the forthcoming state polls in the six states on Aug 12.
For the uninitiated, the anti-party hopping law which came into force at the Federal level on Oct 5 last year, prevents elected representatives elected under the ticket of a political party from hopping over to another political party after securing the contested seat.
This will not only ensure political stability in the country and prevent something like the Sheraton Move from happening again but also boost voters’ confidence in the candidates that they chose in elections.
The Sheraton Move refers to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government 22 months after the coalition won the 14th General Election.
The incident saw a mass exodus of PH MPs, who left to join Bersatu, including then-Gombak MP Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and then-Ampang MP Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin, both of whom were senior PKR leaders at the time.
State level anti-party hopping law
While the anti-hopping law in Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kedah and Kelantan all mirror Parliament’s version, it is interesting to note that the same cannot be said for Penang which had opted to instead keep its stricter version of the law for its assemblymen.
Enacted in 2012, Penang’s anti-party hopping law provides in Article 14A of the state’s Constitution that assemblymen must vacate their seats if having been elected as candidates of political parties, they resign or are expelled from their parties, or having been elected otherwise than as candidates of political parties, they later join a political party.
Conversely, the Parliament’s anti-hopping law applicable to MPs is more lenient, exempting them from vacating their seats if their whole party changes allegiance or if they were sacked from their previous parties and subsequently joined other parties.
Penang’s anti-hopping law had no such exemptions, hence assemblymen who resigned or were sacked from their parties must vacate their seats; likewise, independent assemblymen who later joined parties must also bow out of the assembly.
Recall that in December last year, the Federal Court had rejected a bid by four Penang Bersatu assemblymen to commence a constitutional challenge on the state’s anti-hopping law.
The four Bersatu assemblymen – Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungai Acheh), Dr Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam) and Zolkifly Lazim (Telok Bahang) – had previously filed a suit to challenge a motion introduced by the state assembly’s speaker during its meeting in October 2020, seeking to vacate their seats so that by-elections could be held.
They had alleged that Penang’s 2012 anti-hopping law was wrongfully used against them, and denied that they had defected or changed their party allegiance.
Zulkifli and Afif were sacked from PKR in 2020 and later joined Bersatu while Khaliq and Zolkifly are members of Bersatu.
Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat had dismissed the leave application after hearing submissions from lawyers Datuk DP Naban who represented the four assemblymen and Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar who appeared for the state government. – July 25, 2023
Main pic credit: CNA
