Syaza Sukri of International Islamic University Malaysia says details should include how the proposed law would impact the tenure of the sitting prime minister.
Syaza Sukri of the International Islamic University Malaysia said the details should include how the proposed law would impact the tenure of the sitting prime minister.
“If the bill is passed this year, does that mean Anwar Ibrahim would have technically served one term? Or do we consider that his first term begins after he wins the next general election?” she said at a forum on the term limit for the prime minister hdre tonight.
The online forum was organised by electoral reform group Bersih.
Syaza cited former Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s case as an example.
In 2022, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled that Prayuth could continue in office and that he had not surpassed his maximum eight-year term limit as the prime minister.
The court had said that his tenure as prime minister should be counted from 2017, when a new constitution was implemented.
His detractors said his time in office should be calculated from 2014, when he took power as army commander following a coup, while his supporters argued that his term in office should be calculated from 2017, or from when he took office after his election as a civilian prime minister in 2019.
“These details are very important,” Syaza said.
Anwar had announced the bill earlier this month as part of the key institutional reforms his administration intends on fulfilling.
Syaza said limiting the term of a prime minister, while a necessary institutional safeguard, was “incomplete”, as the policy did not guarantee that a sitting prime minister would not be involved in corruption.
“We had a prime minister who was in power for almost 10 years, only for him to be involved in a big corruption case and was sentenced for it,” she said. - FMT
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