KUCHING (July 29): The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) has launched a report on the proposed Recall Procedure Law (RPL) at the state level to address party-hopping, which has plagued Malaysia for decades.
According to Bersih 2.0, the RPL returns the mandate to the voters by allowing them to propose a petition to keep or sack an assemblyperson (Adun) who has switched parties for personal gain or if the party leadership disagreed with his or her decision.
“This has been the practice in countries like India, Germany, Canada, and the United States where initiatives to stop party-hopping have started at the sub-national level.
“This research report entitled ‘A Case for State-Level Recall Procedure Law to Remedy Party-Hopping in Malaysia’ was commissioned by Bersih 2.0 to Prof Wong Chin Huat, an esteemed political scientist who wrote it with the assistance of Wo Chang Xi,” Bersih 2.0 said in a statement today.
Bersih 2.0 said the report detailed how the RPL did not immediately remove the Adun from the seat but actually triggered the aforementioned proposal to be signed by constituents.
It also proposed a set of restricted triggers or grounds so that this RPL cannot be abused:
(a) If an Adun resigns or is expelled from a party, unless to assume the office of a Speaker.
(b) If the Adun was elected as an independent and subsequently joins a political party.
(c) If the Adun is convicted of a non-compoundable offence after being elected, except those falling under the Sedition Act 1948, the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, Sections 211 and 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, or is imprisoned for a compoundable offence.
(d) If an Adun has been absent from the sittings of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) for 50 per cent of the sitting days for a consecutive period of six months.
Bersih said the process starts with a recall proposal, which must be headed by a lead proponent and undersigned by a minimum 1 per cent of electors in the constituency.
“If this succeeds, a petition will call for signatures requiring a threshold of 40 per cent of constituents or half the constituency’s turnout rate at the last elections, whichever is lower.
“If this threshold is met, then the seat is declared vacant and a by-election will be held as in the case of any other casual vacancy. The recall procedure should be administered by a three-person Recall Board nominated by the Chief Minister and appointed by the DUN.
“The board members cannot be politicians and must be gender representative. The entire procedure should take no more than 80 days,” added Bersih 2.0.
According to Bersih 2.0, the benefit of the RPL is that it returns the mandate to the voters to decide instead of waiting till the next general election.
It pointed out that the RPL “is constitutional unlike an anti-hopping law and does not restrict an elected representative’s freedom of association”.
Bersih 2.0 added that elected representatives can exercise this freedom on policy issues and participate in backbench revolt or cross the floor as they see fit, balanced with their constituents’ approval.
“Party-hopping is symptomatic of structural and clientelist issues such as voters’ over-reliance on elected representatives for constituency services and a lack of scrutiny on key government and government-linked companies (GLC) appointments, allowing these positions to be dished out by the Executive like candy to children to engender compliance and support.
“If these aforementioned structural issues are not addressed and if voters support the party-hopping for clientelist reasons, then the RPL will be less effective,” it explained.
Bersih 2.0 called for the implementation of this RPL by state governments before the next general election as a deterrence to pre-election party-hopping and to reinvigorate voters who have been disillusioned by rampant party-hopping in the last two years.