The Malaysian Insight

PARLIAMENT must pass a law to prevent lawmakers from vacating their seats and forcing a by-election unless absolutely necessary, said the Election Reform Committee (ERC).

Committee chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said the current structure of election laws do not prevent resignations and forced elections.

“There should be a law, not just preventing, but to control this kind of thing from happening, unless it is really necessary,” he said at a press conference this morning.

The Bersatu vice president, who is also former Election Commission (EC) chairman, said the law should not come under the EC, which is powerless to investigate or enforce rulings, but should come under parliament instead.

The Port Dickson seat fell vacant after Danyal Balagopal Abdullah quit as MP to make way for PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim, who is attempting a comeback.

This is in line with Pakatan Harapan’s plan to have him take over from Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister.

However, the engineering of Anwar’s return to parliament has been criticised by civil societies and armed forces veterans group Patriot, who said Danyal’s resignation was an act of betrayal to his supporters.

The by-election will be held tomorrow.

Earlier during the press conference, Rashid said the ERC will be proposing a list of recommendations encompassing 15 areas for the government to improve on electoral laws.

Rashid said this will be done within two years and will be fully implemented by the next general elections. – October 12, 2018.