Dr M: We need 'generous' opposition to pass bills requiring a two-thirds majority

Even if all Pakatan Harapan MPs are present for key votes in Parliament, the government will still need bi-partisanship on the part of the opposition to pass key bills that require a two-thirds majority.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this yesterday when asked if the Harapan leadership would insist on full attendance from its MPs for key votes in the parliamentary session which begins today.

"We can have all the MPs from Harapan attending but we still can't get two-thirds. So we hope the opposition will be generous enough to support (our proposed bills)," he said at a press conference last night after a retreat between Pakatan Presidential Council members and MPs from Harapan and Warisan.

"When we decided there should be three regions, unfortunately, one section of MPs did not support and that was lost," said Mahathir.

This was in reference to the proposed amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution that sought to separate Sarawak and Sabah from being listed together with the 11 states of Malaya after the amendment of the Article in 1976.

However, on April 9, the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 failed to obtain a two-thirds majority or 148 votes from the House.

With a total of 138 parliamentarians voting for the bill and zero votes against the bill, Putrajaya was short by 10 votes in its first attempt for a constitutional amendment.

Conversely, on July 16, the Dewan Rakyat passed a bill to amend the Federal Constitution to lower the voting age to 18.

Due to support from both government and opposition MPs, the bill was passed by a vote of 211. There were no abstentions or nays.

It marked the first time the Federal Constitution had been amended since the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration. - Mkini