We had recently provided a sneak peek into the key features of the proposed anti-party hopping law announced by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law), Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar.
1 Our Alert on this can be accessed
here.
The Minister has now announced
2 that the members of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee (‘
PSSC’) that was tasked to review and prepare a draft of the Bill to stop party hopping by Members of the House of Representatives have unanimously agreed to request the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, to hold a special parliamentary sitting in the first week of July 2022
3 to debate the new law instead of waiting for the scheduled meeting of Parliament commencing mid-July 2022
4.
Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi also added that the PSSC will be holding its final meeting soon before submitting the proposed draft law for the Cabinet’s approval and the date of its tabling in Parliament.
5
It appears from the latest announcement by Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi that the finish line is within sight for the PSSC’s work on the proposed anti-party hopping law. It is now up to the Prime Minister to convene a special meeting of Parliament and the Malaysian Parliament to push the new law across the line.
Update by Kok Chee Kheong (Partner) and Tan Wei Liang (Senior Associate) of the Corporate Practice of Skrine.
1 See ‘
Law minister confident of majority vote for anti-hopping law’,
The Star, 27 May 2022 and ‘
Anti-hopping law not for parties’,
The Star, 27 May 2022.
2 See ‘
Proposal to table Bill at special sitting in early July’, The Star, 9 June 2022.
3 The Minister indicated in his previous announcement that a special one-day sitting of Parliament could be held in mid-June 2022 (See ‘
Law minister confident of majority vote for anti-hopping law’,
The Star, 27 May 2022).
4 The next meeting of the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) is scheduled from 18 July 2022 to 4 August 2022 and the Dewan Negara (Senate) from 8 to 16 August 2022.