Wan Saiful: Penang govt’s attempt to vacate four Bersatu assemblymen’s seats shows they fear Perikatan

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Perikatan Nasional (PN) supreme council member Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan said the Penang government’s decision to table a motion for four Bersatu assemblymen to vacate their seats, reflects DAP and Barisan Nasional’s (BN) reluctance to have checks and balances in the state government.

Wan Saiful said the motion that vacated the four assemblymen’s seats shows DAP and BN’s willingness to use all law channels to suppress people’s support for PN.

“They are using all the power they have including their power in the State Legislative Assembly.

“By right, they should wait until the state election which is approaching soon.

“But their greediness has led to them to approve the motion that forced four PN assemblymen in the Penang State Legislative Assembly to vacate their seats,” Wan Saiful told reporters in Parliament today.

In his defence of the four assemblymen, Wan Saiful reminded that Penang’s former chief minister and DAP’s Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng, had on August 2022 said there was a need for the Penang state government to amend the State Constitution so that it is in line with the anti-party hopping law at federal level.

“At the federal level, when an individual is sacked, or when a party leaves a coalition, that situation is not considered as party-hopping.

“But the regulations in the Penang state government are not in-line with the aspirations at the federal level when two assemblymen in Penang from PN who never party-hopped, both contested under Bersatu, remained in Bersatu, but Bersatu left Pakatan Harapan (PH) and two more assemblymen were sacked from PKR, these two have never party-hopped as well.

“The aspirations at the federal level have not been translated at the state level as the sacking and two more who remained in Bersatu has been considered as party-hopping in Penang,” he said expressing regret over the matter.

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

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.

The motion for the four to vacate their seats earlier 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.