PETALING JAYA: A proposed new law to ban party hopping by elected representatives, due to be tabled this week, will cover only MPs and not senators and state assemblymen, law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.
He said a parliamentary special select committee that drafted the bill had decided to concentrate on MPs first.
“The government will decide on including senators should there be a need in the near future,” he said at a press conference at Parliament House today.
He said the inclusion of senators (members of the Dewan Negara) had been raised at several meetings of the parliamentary committee.
Under current law, senators are elected to the Dewan Negara by state assemblies or through political appointment by the federal government, and do not stand for public election.
For state assembly members, Wan Junaidi said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong would first have consultations with the sultans and governors. “When the sultans and governors agree to the law, only then can it be introduced at the state level,” he added.
The much-awaited anti-hopping law was one of the main conditions stipulated in the political agreement between Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government and Pakatan Harapan last September.
It was to have been tabled in March but was delayed.
Wan Junaidi said earlier this month that he expects the law to be implemented by the end of September.
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