KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul must declare vacancies for the seats held by six former Bersatu lawmakers who lost their party memberships for insubordination, Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan claimed today.
The Bersatu supreme council member said Kelantan Speaker Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah has set a precedent with his decision today to vacate the Nenggiri seat held by a state lawmaker who was also stripped of party membership.
“I hope Tan Sri Johari Abdul as Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat will ensure there is some uniformity in the implementation of the rules of the State Assembly and the Dewan Rakyat after seeing what happened in Kelantan,” Wan Saiful said in a statement today.
“If this precedent is not honoured or adopted from a standpoint of uniformity, then there could be a a serious constitutional crisis as a result of failure to abide by set precedents.”
Earlier today, Mohd Amar declared the Nenggiri seat of Mohd Azizi Abu Naim to have been vacated as of June 13, citing a notice he received the day before that Bersatu has revoked the latter’s membership.
The Kelantan Speaker then said the Election Commission is obliged to call for a by-election within 60 days of being notified formally of the vacancy.
Mohd Azizi is among former Bersatu lawmakers who technically defected by declaring support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s government despite being members of the Opposition party.
They were previously able to retain their seats due to the loophole in the constitutional amendment to prohibit political defections by not resigning from Bersatu.
On March 2, Bersatu successfully amended the party’s constitution to prevent its representatives from defecting in the future, with the change also accepted by the Registrar of Societies.
The six former Bersatu MPs who expressed their support for Anwar are Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Labuan), Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (Bukit Gantang), Zahari Kechik (Jeli), Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang), Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar) and Datuk Zulkafperi Hanafi (Tanjong Karang).
Parliament will convene its next meeting starting Monday, June 24.
