PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has no problem with the Penang government's proposal to enact a law to prevent state assemblypersons from defecting in the middle of their elected term.

Anwar said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had personally informed him of the decision to table such law in the November sitting of the state legislative assembly.

"No problem. The chief minister reported to me yesterday," he said when asked about this during a Selangor state government function at Shah Alam today.

NONE However, the Selangor government has yet to decide whether to follow in the footsteps of Penang, according to state executive councillors Rodziah Ismail, Ronnie Liu and Halimah Ali.

"We have not discussed the anti-hopping law (in Selangor)," Rodziah ( left ) said.

Lim has explained that move to enact a law to prevent state assemblypersons from switching political allegiance mid-term was to protect citizens from any breach of public trust and to protect democracy.

The issue came into the limelight after two MPs from Sabah - Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing - quit the BN recently to become Pakatan-friendly.

Anwar's statement today is seen as a relief for the DAP as the party has been pressured to state its position on defections in Sabah and Anwar's purported 'Sept 16' plan of 2009 to get BN MPs to cross over to Pakatan in an alleged bid to seize Putrajaya.

On the other hand, de facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz has claimed that such a law would go against the constitutional guarantee on freedom of association.

Nazri warned that the Supreme Court, which has since been succeeded by the Federal Court, had once ruled such a law as unconstitutional.