DAP U-turns on the anti-hopping law
So, either way DAP is going to lose. DAP is going to lose the court case, and even if they win the court case they are going to lose in the court of public opinion, and if the by-elections are held, Pakatan Harapan is going to lose these seats as well. Hence the reason for DAP’s U-turn.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The DAP Penang State Government has been advised to drop its attempt to declare the seats of four Penang State Assemblymen as vacant.
DAP had initially planned to table the motion at the Penang State Legislative Assembly, which will be held between October 12 and 19, to get four state seats — Teluk Bahang, Seberang Jaya, Bertam and Sungai Acheh — declared vacant as per Article 14A of the state constitution.
The four State Assemblymen — Dr Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungai Acheh), Zolkifly Md Lazim (Teluk Bahang) and Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam) — have challenged this move in court and the case is supposed to be heard tomorrow.
DAP is not only going to lose the court case but will lose the four by-elections as well if they are held
However, the lawyers have advised DAP that they are going to lose the court case because changing parties is not an illegal or unconstitutional act. In fact, Malaysia’s Constitution allows freedom of choice and freedom of association.
Furthermore, the theory propagated by political philosopher Edmund Burke is that elected representatives do not owe voters their blind obedience, but rather their judgment. According to Burke, politicians best serve their constituents when they exercise their judgment on the voters’ behalf and do not simply follow the demands of voters’ or their parties.
Today, this can be interpreted to mean that it is acceptable for a politician, at times, to go against the specific wishes of voters and leave the party if he/she thinks that such an action is in the voters’ best interests.
Based on the advice of the lawyers, this is going to be a lost cause and it would be better for DAP to back down. Even if DAP wins the case, which the lawyers are sceptical about, four new by-elections in Penang are going to anger the people who are already suffering from the PRN Sabah Covid-19 Cluster caused by Pakatan Harapan.
DAP’s intel shows if four new by-elections are held in Teluk Bahang, Seberang Jaya, Bertam and Sungai Acheh, Pakatan Harapan is going to lose these seats.
So, either way DAP is going to lose. DAP is going to lose the court case, and even if they win the court case they are going to lose in the court of public opinion, and if the by-elections are held, Pakatan Harapan is going to lose these seats as well. Hence the reason for DAP’s U-turn.
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DAP U-turns on anti-hopping law
(MMO) – The Penang state government is dropping its intention to table a motion to force four assemblymen, who defected from Pakatan Harapan (PH), to vacate their seats under the state’s anti-hopping law in the upcoming state assembly.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state exco made this decision yesterday due to the current public health situation.
“We are not abandoning the motion. We will continue to pursue the motion until the next state assembly or until the public health situation is under control,” he said during a press conference at his office today.
DAP is using the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic as the excuse to U-turn on the anti-hopping law
The state had initially planned to table the motion at the state legislative assembly which will be held between October 12 and 19.
The motion was to declare four state seats — Teluk Bahang, Seberang Jaya, Bertam and Sungai Acheh — vacant as per Article 14A of the state constitution.
Article 14A(1) of the state constitution provides that a member of the legislative assembly shall vacate his seat if having been elected as a candidate of a political party, he resigns or is expelled from or ceases to be a member of the party.
Chow is confident that motion would be approved by the state assembly with a strong majority which will pave the way for by-elections for the four seats.
However, based on the drastic spike of Covid-19 cases due to the Sabah state elections, he believed that if by-elections are held at this time, the public’s health might be compromised.
He said the Covid-19 situation was the main consideration that led to the state exco’s decision to postpone the tabling of the motion.
“We will propose that the motion be withdrawn until the next state assembly or until the public health situation is under control to allow by-elections in the affected seats,” he said.
“If by-elections are held during this period, we saw what happened in Sabah, which led to a spike in cases in the whole country. We do not want this to happen here,” he added.
The four assemblymen involved are Dr Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungai Acheh), Zolkifly Md Lazim (Teluk Bahang) and Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam), all of whom left PH to join Perikatan Nasional (PN).
