Caretaker govt can have long life if Parliament is dissolved

 

A caretaker government can remain in power until a new general election is held, say legal experts. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: If Parliament is dissolved, elections are unlikely to be called due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This means the current government can continue in power as a caretaker government until the next general election is held, according to legal experts.

With the government’s position becoming increasingly tenuous, there are rumours that the Cabinet yesterday discussed the possibility of dissolving Parliament.

If the Yang di-Pertuan Agong were to consent to such a dissolution, it is unlikely that a general election would be possible within the constitutionally mandated 60-day window due to the severity of the pandemic.

A precedent has already been set in Sarawak, where state polls that were supposed to be held within 60 days of Aug 2 were suspended when the state of emergency was extended in the state until February next year.

Bastian Pius Vendargon.

Lawyer Bastian Pius Vendargon said suspending the general election would similarly have to come by way of another emergency proclamation since there were no explicit provisions to allow for an extension beyond 60 days.

“You could have a limited emergency theoretically, but the question then is obviously whether we want to go down that path again. But that would be the way to suspend elections,” he said.

On the limitations of a caretaker government, he said that in theory there were not many.

“The current government would stay in power until elections are held. It remains in place to carry out the day-to-day administration of the country.

“While constitutional experts generally believe it should not pursue new policy decisions, expenditures or projects, this is only a convention and not a hard rule.”

Gurdial Singh.

Another lawyer, Gurdial Singh, said caretaker governments in Malaysia had historically been caretakers in name only.

“We’ve seen it time and time again. During the period between dissolution and polls, the government continues to spend money and push forward with major projects.

“There have been many examples where a community which has been begging for road upgrades or land titles for years in vain suddenly finds the government initiating the work or granting the titles,” he said.

Gurdial said a caretaker government should, by right, merely watch over the country until fresh elections could be held.

“But administrations of the past have continued to dip into the government’s coffers to grant big projects like the construction of new infrastructure or repair works to religious sites,” he said.- FMT