KUCHING: The anti-hopping Bill to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday will be supported by the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) bloc.
Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni said GPS MPs including himself will be participating in the debate.
“We expect that this Bill will get full support from Members of Parliament despite their initial reluctance.
“The basis for the Bill is to allow MPs who have resigned from office to re-contest. This means we will repeal Article 48(6) of the Federal Constitution.
“We will also have other matters that will be tabled through this constitutional amendment,” he said.
The Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) deputy youth chief was speaking to reporters after a PBB Youth wing meeting at the party headquarters here, on Saturday (July 16).
Article 48(6) stipulates that MPs will not be eligible to contest in an election for five years if they vacate their parliamentary seat.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar earlier this week said the Cabinet has approved the draft of the anti-party hopping Bill prepared by a parliamentary special select committee.
“The draft was unanimously approved by the Cabinet ministers. Therefore, the tabling and the debate of the anti-hopping Bill in the next parliamentary meeting will go on as per the planned timeline,” he said in a statement on Thursday (July 14).
On the parliamentary sitting, Lukanisman also said he expects issues such as price hike of essential items to be raised in the House along with economic uncertainties and the instability of the federal government.
“This time, the biggest challenge for the federal government is to provide answers to issues affecting the people and seek a solution.
“We need to come up with assistance packages which are dignified to the people to ease their burden,” he said.
Besides the tabling of other Bills during the upcoming session, Lukanisman also expects that the issue of extending the current memorandum of understanding between the government and opposition will be raised.
The memorandum was inked in Sept 2021 to establish bipartisan cooperation on a number of areas such as empowerment of the COVID-19 recovery plan, administrative transformation and parliamentary reforms.
At the same time, it also sought to highlight freedom of the judiciary, formation of a Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) steering committee on the rights of Sabah and Sarawak.
