GEORGE TOWN, March 6 — Four Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia assemblymen were ordered to leave the Penang legislative assembly this morning after their peers approved a motion to vacate their seats under the state anti-hopping law.

Speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang thanked the four for their services as state assemblymen and told them to leave the House immediately.

"Now that the motion has been approved, the four of you will need to vacate your seats as per the motion,” he said.

The four assemblymen are: Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungai Acheh), Dr Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam) and Zolkifly Md Lazim (Telok Bahang).

All four packed up their bags and walked out of the legislative assembly without a fuss.

The motion for the four to vacate their seats was tabled by Pinang Tunggal assemblyman Datuk Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abd Rahman from PKR.

He cited Article 14A of the Penang Constitution, which stipulates that a member of the state legislative assembly shall vacate his seat if having been elected as a candidate of a political party, he resigns or is expelled from a party or having been elected otherwise than as a candidate of a political party, he joins a political party.

He said the four had contested and won their seats in Election 2018 under the PKR logo but are no longer with Pakatan Harapan (PH), and should abide by the state’s anti-party hopping law.

During debate, the four Bersatu representatives rejected the motion, which was unanimously supported by the government backbenchers.

In asking for the motion to be dismissed, Khaliq pointed out that he and Zolkifly were both Bersatu members when they contested in the 2018 general elections and had never left the party.

He said they had contested under PKR’s logo as PH was not a registered coalition at that time.

He added that even DAP candidates had contested in the elections under the PKR logo.

"Even Padang Kota contested under the PKR logo so does this mean he hopped party since he is a DAP leader?” Khaliq asked, referring to Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow by his state constituency.

He also questioned the move by the PH-led Penang government in tabling the motion even though the state polls must be called this year.

"What are you so afraid of? Why are you so afraid of the four of us that you have to force us to vacate the seats? We were elected by the people so you should let the people decide,” he said.

He added that the four of them may have to leave the state assembly today but swore "we will be back stronger”.

Zulkifli and Dr Afif, who were both PKR members when they were elected have since been sacked by the party while Khaliq and Zolkifly are still members of Bersatu, the same party they were part of during the 2018 state polls.

In response to Khaliq’s arguments, CM Chow said the point of the motion was to uphold the state constitution.

"This is to uphold our state constitution and the anti-hopping law so that the democratic rights of the people are protected,” he said.

He said the Penang Constitution had a very clear stance on anti-party hopping, which was enforced in 2013.

"All of you entered into this knowing the existence of this anti-hopping law in Penang,” Chow said.

He also said that a majority of the voters do not even know the individual candidates but had voted solely based on the parties they represented.

"It pains my heart to bring this motion to this august House but we have to do this to uphold the state constitution,” he said.

Speaker Law took a verbal vote of those who were in support of the motion by asking those who agreed to say "ya” and those who disagreed to say "tidak”, meaning no in Malay.

A majority of those present in the legislative assembly shouted "ya” while only a few said "tidak”.

Law then declared the motion approved before ordering the four Bersatu representatives to vacate their seats.