Bersatu seeking to vacate six seats of its turncoat MPs - Muhyiddin

Bersatu will seek to vacate the six parliamentary seats held by its members who recently pledged their backing for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

According to Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, they plan to submit notices on the matter to the speaker of the Dewan Rakyat after the party amends its constitution regarding membership.

He said this in his speech when launching the Bersatu extraordinary meeting today, which was held specially to introduce an amendment aimed at preventing future “defections” of its elected representatives.

Calling the six MPs as traitors to the party, Muhyiddin said they want fresh by-elections at the six seats, namely Tanjung Karang, Bukit Gantang, Kuala Kangsar, Gua Musang, Jeli and Labuan.

"Today, we want to amend our party constitution so (the six MPs) will automatically lose their party membership.

"So, when this happens, their seats will be vacated and we can return the mandate to choose new representatives to the people," he told delegates to the EGM.

The six MPs are Zulkafperi Hanapi (Tanjung Karang), Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (Bukit Gantang), Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar), Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang), Zahari Kechik (Jeli), and Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Labuan).

Adding further, Muhyiddin said he hoped that Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul would not "berdolak-dalik" (dodge the matter) when Bersatu submits the notices.

He told party delegates that they had to resort to amending the Bersatu constitution as the six MPs had pledged support to "the enemy" while maintaining that they were still loyal to the party.

This, Muhyiddin said, was unacceptable to Bersatu.

The party also could not opt for the sacking of the MPs as it would let them retain their respective seats.

"These people should just quit the party, but they know that doing that would trigger the Anti-Hopping Law and have to vacate their seats.

"They want to be with our enemy but at the same time keep their seats. Kepala otak dia," Muhyiddin said.

'No need for retrospective'

During a press conference held right after the EGM passed the resolution to amend Article 10, Muhyiddin explained how the party plans to trigger the seats to be vacated.

He said Bersatu will submit today's resolution to the Registrar of Societies for its approval.

Once it gets the green light from the authority, Bersatu secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin will send an official letter to each of the six MPs asking them to state their position.

"Hamzah will write to them asking if they indeed support PMX (Anwar). If they say yes, then they will trigger (the constitutional provision and anti-hopping law), and thus would have to vacate their seats.

"Then we will inform the Election Commission," he said.

Thus, Muhyiddin added, the party does not need the amendment to be retrospective.

So far, six Bersatu parliamentarians have pledged their backing for Anwar, citing the well-being of their constituents.

On Jan 26, Syed Abu Hussin claimed that about 10 more Bersatu MPs are expected to declare their support for Anwar.

Hamzah said on Jan 29 that his party has agreed to amend Article 10 of the party’s constitution to keep its elected representatives in line.