Foiled before, can Harapan succeed in second bid to amend constitution?

Pakatan Harapan is set to have another crack at amending the Federal Constitution when the second meeting of the Dewan Rakyat convenes next week.

This will allow the coalition to fulfil its manifesto promise to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18 and will require an amendment to Article 119 of the Federal Constitution.

After a series of defections, Harapan and its allies Warisan and Upko will enter Parliament with 139 parliamentary seats in the 222-member House.

However, Harapan is still nine seats shy of the crucial two-thirds majority needed to amend the Federal Constitution.

The status of Sipitang MP Yamani Hafez Musa as a Bersatu member is still unclear but even if his membership is confirmed, the coalition will still need another eight seats to pull off the amendment. Yamani, who is son of former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman, quit Umno last year to become an independent.

Support from either BN (40 seats), PAS (18 seats) or Sarawak's GPS (18 seats) will be enough to get Harapan across the finishing line.

While expanded suffrage to include teens at 18 and above is hardly a controversial issue, politics can still get in the way as it did in Harapan's first failed bid to amend the Federal Constitution.

On April 9, the Dewan Rakyat had voted on an amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution which was intended to restore Sabah and Sarawak's position as an equal region to Peninsular Malaysia instead of being mere states in the Federation of Malaya. The motion to pass the bill was defeated.

While GPS agreed with the amendment, it ultimately abstained from voting on the grounds that the amendment was not comprehensive enough. BN and PAS, too, took a similar position.

The bill saw with 138 votes in favour and 59 abstentions which translated to 10 votes shy of the threshold.

Interestingly, smaller opposition groupings such as Gabungan Bersatu Sabah (three MPs) and Kimanis MP Anifah Aman, who is an independent MP, supported the amendment bill.

Twenty-four MPs were absent for the vote, including four from Harapan.

The upcoming constitutional amendment vote will not only be a test of Harapan's discipline but also its ability to convince the opposition to work together on bi-partisan issues.

Opposition keeps cards close to the chest

The three major opposition groupings have remained coy on their position but Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa has indicated that Umno's plan is to get PAS and GPS to act collectively. Umno holds 37 out of the 40 seats held by BN.

Annuar, who is  Ketereh MP, said he planned to "negotiate" with PAS and GPS before announcing the party's position.

Meanwhile, newly-minted PAS deputy Youth chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari, who is Pasir Mas MP, said the Islamist party "agrees in principle" with the amendment but would not commit the party's votes as yet.

"We want it to be done as a package including automatic registration and a pre-determined election date," he told Malaysiakini.

He said PAS will discuss the matter tomorrow night at a pre-council meeting.

GPS, too, is not showing its hand as yet with the coalition's whip, Petrajaya MP Fadillah Yusof, saying it will only decide after a federal government briefing.

"The ministry is giving us a briefing on July 3. We will only make a decision after that," he told Malaysiakini.

If BN, PAS and GPS take a collective and partisan stance against the amendment, Harapan's second bid to amend the Federal Constitution will almost certainly head for defeat.

Outside of the three main opposition blocs, only six opposition MPs are left comprising one from Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), three from Gabungan Bersatu Sabah (GBS) and two independents.

Even if Harapan conjures a perfect turnout and invokes the support of the six MPs and Yamani, the ruling coalition will still be short of two votes.

In such a situation, Harapan's only hope will be for individual MPs from BN, PAS or GPS to break ranks and vote with the ruling coalition. - Mkini