Only laws can stop party hopping, not SDs - Loke

 

Statutory declarations (SDs) alone will not prevent elected representatives from defecting to another party after winning an election, said DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke.

Responding to a statement by BN deputy chairperson Mohamad Hasan, he said this can only be achieved by enacting an anti-party hopping law after amending the Federal Constitution.

“Tok Mat himself has received political frogs during his first term when he was the Negeri Sembilan menteri besar, namely the Bahau assemblyperson (Lim Fui Ming) who won on the DAP ticket in the 2004 election and hopped over to BN in 2007,” he said, referring to Mohamad by his moniker.

“After this, I hope all parties would jointly support an anti-party hopping law in Parliament. Let there be some dignity in politics,” he said through his Facebook account last night.

He was responding to a Bernama report that quoted Mohamad saying that all 28 candidates chosen to represent BN in the upcoming Malacca state election must sign an SD to prevent them from leaving the party after winning.

Mohamad said the SDs were being prepared by lawyers to be signed by the candidates before their candidacies are announced today.

“As there is no such act or enactment in Parliament or the (Malacca) state assembly yet, we need to have this declaration and two or three more documents for the candidates to sign before they receive their credentials tomorrow,” he was quoted as saying, adding that this is for the sake of political stability in Malaysia.

Political defections have been an issue since the 2018 general election, which has led to the downfall of the Pakatan Harapan federal government as well as several state governments.

The upcoming Malacca by-election was triggered by four defections from BN led by Idris Haron in a failed coup, which led to the dissolution of the state assembly.

Nomination day for the Malacca state election is set on Monday, while polling day falls on Nov 20. Early polling will be held on Nov 16. - Mkini