Under constitutional amendment, MPs who jump ship will lose seat, says PM

MPs elected by the people through a general election will lose their seats if they switch parties, according to the Constitution (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) on the provision of the Prohibition of Members of Parliament from Party Hopping, tabled for a second reading by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob in the Dewan Rakyat today.

The enacted constitutional amendment contains four paragraphs and six clauses, four of which are new.

"The new clause 4 aims to insert a new Article 49A in the Federal Constitution to provide that a member of the House of Representatives shall cease to be a member of the House and that his or her seat shall become vacant as soon as a contingency vacancy date is determined by the speaker of the House," said Ismail.

He said the same would apply to independent MPs who, after being elected to the House of Representatives, join a political party.
 
"Any MP 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 or her seat," he said.

Ismail however said that MPs would not lose their seats if they are dismissed by their party or if their political party is dissolved or deregistered.

The bill also repeals the five-year ban on those who resign as MPs.

"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 or her membership to contest again at any time after he or she renounces membership in the House of Representatives. As such, the five-year ban on contesting no longer applies," Ismail said.

Also included in the bill is the authority of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to make the 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 says that 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 or 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 said the special select committee to make recommendations on an amendment to the constitution regarding the prohibition on members of the Dewan Rakyat switching political parties had given due consideration to all issues raised in relation to the bill.

He said this included the implications of drafting certain provisions related to the matter.

"The committee also received written views from various parties including NGOs, CSOs, academics 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 input 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.