KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — The Registrar of Societies (RoS) has approved Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (Bersatu) constitutional amendment which allows the party to vacate the seats of six parliamentarians who voiced their support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The party’s Youth chief, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, in a Facebook post today said the amendment took effect yesterday.
“Alhamdulillah, RoS has approved the amendment application that would allow us to vacate the seats of the six MPs who voiced their support for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“The next step is to vacate their seats for by-elections at the parliamentary level,” Wan Ahmad Fayhsal said.
The Machang MP also attached a copy of the amendment approved by the RoS to his Facebook post.
It read that the RoS had approved the application for an amendment to the party’s constitution starting April 1.
In February, two out of the six Bersatu MPs had said they would maintain their support for the prime minister even if their party were to amend its constitution to close the loophole that allowed them to do this without triggering the anti-hopping law.
Bukit Gantang MP Datuk Syed Abu Hussain Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal said the move to amend the party constitution simply showed that Bersatu was afraid more of its lawmakers wanted to support the Anwar administration.
Gua Musang MP Mohd Azizi Abu Naim had also said that since it was the second year of their term, it was time that the Bersatu MPs serve their constituents.
At the same time, Srikandi Bersatu vice-chief Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said the party amendment to prevent defections among its elected representatives would not have a retrospective effect on the six Bersatu MPs who shifted their support to the prime minister.
Apart from Syed Abu and Mohd Azizi, the other Bersatu MPs are Tanjong Karang MP Datuk Zulkaperi Hanafi, Jeli MP Zahari Ketchikan, Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid and Labuan MP Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman.