Sabah assembly passes anti-hopping bill, CM thanks state reps

The Sabah assembly today passed the Constitution of the State of Sabah (Amendment) Enactment 2023 aimed at preventing state-elected representatives from party-hopping.

The bill garnered majority support from the assemblypersons after Chief Minister Hajiji Noor tabled it, with 75 supporting while four were absent.

Based on Article 43 of the Sabah constitution, the legislative assembly cannot pass any amendment to the constitution unless it has been supported on the second and third readings by a two-thirds majority vote.

During the second reading, state opposition leader Shafie Apdal (Warisan-Senallang) proposed a bloc vote for the second clause of the bill aimed at deleting Article 6 (7) from the state constitution.

Four clauses in the bill were approved with a majority vote, while the bloc vote for Clause 2 was supported by 61 assemblypersons who agreed that Article 6(7) of the state constitution should be deleted. Fourteen disagreed, while four assemblypersons were absent.

For the third reading of the bill, a total of 75 assemblypersons expressed support while four were absent.

Hajiji (above), when winding up the debate on the motion said the bill aimed to delete Article 6(7) in the Sabah constitution because it was no longer in line with the requirements under Article 6(3) following current political developments.

Article 6(3), among others, states that the governor of Sabah shall appoint as chief minister a member of the legislative assembly who in his judgment is likely to command the confidence of a majority of the members of the assembly.

Article 6(7), meanwhile, states that the leader of a political party that has won a majority of the elected seats of the assembly in a general election and who is a member of the assembly shall be the one who is likely to command the confidence of the majority.

Coalition state govt

Explaining further, Hajiji said since the 14th general election in 2018, no political party had obtained a majority to govern the state and since then, the state government has been administered by a coalition of political parties.

“…the state government since 2018 has been a coalition government, so this does not meet the requirements of Article 6(7).

“This (amendment) makes it easier for the governor to make discretionary decisions, (on) who gets the support of the majority... and for the governor to decide (on a situation) of the position of the coalition and the support of the assemblypersons when the support (of a party) does not exceed 50 percent,” he added.

Hajiji said today's amendment does not involve appointed assemblypersons as they are not voted in by the electorate and do not have a constituency to represent.

Sabah has a total of 79 assemblypersons of which 73 are elected and six appointed.

At a press conference later, Hajiji thanked all 75 assemblypersons who supported the anti-hopping legislation.

He also said the massive support received showed that Sabah’s elected representatives were prioritising the people and Sabah’s well-being.

The approved constitutional amendment, Hajiji added, will be gazetted within a few days or weeks because it needs to be presented and examined by Sabah Governor, Juhar Mahiruddin.

"I’m grateful that the anti-party hopping amendment has the support of all parties.

“With the passage of the constitutional amendment, we will no longer have to worry about assemblypersons jumping parties in the future.

"This is in line with the anti-hopping law which was introduced at the federal level," Hajiji mentioned.

- Bernama

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