Electoral reforms first, then GE

Pakatan Rakyat says the government must not dissolve Parliament until the PSC's recommendations are implemented.

FMT ALERT

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat has demanded that the Barisan Nasional government implement electoral reforms before calling for a general election.

DAP Rasah MP Anthony Loke said that a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reforms would be meaningless if Parliament was dissolved now.

“The suggestions (raised) in that committee will have to be debated in Parliament in the first session next year,” he said, referring to the proposed PSC, which would be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat this October.

Loke said that any ideas and suggestions raised on electoral reforms would come to naught if the government went ahead with the next polls.

“(If this happens), it means that the PSC will be dissolved automatically and whatever suggestions which were brought in will not be valid.

“Nothing will be implemented out of it,” he said, adding that if such an instance was to take place, it would be seen as a “political theatre”.

In August, the Cabinet agreed to the setting up of the PSC to look into the issues behind Malaysia’s current electoral process.

At the time, the Cabinet agreed for the motion on the proposed PSC to be tabled at the next Parliamentary sitting this October.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said that the committee would consist of five Barisan Nasional MPs, three Pakatan MPs and one independent MP.