Mohd Shafie urges PM to expedite tabling of the Anti-Party Hopping Bill

KOTA KINABALU - Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to expedite the tabling of the anti-party hopping law in Parliament.

He said even during the efforts of demanding the bill to be tabled, there were certain parties that were still 'buying out' the people's representatives from a party.

"I hope the leaders of the party would put an end to this, we want the law tabled in Parliament to ensure that this can be implemented as soon as possible and to ensure that we still have our pride and dignity as a democratic country.

"If tomorrow they win, they would jump (to other parties), they become a people's representative, they would jump, we have our dignity but we sell it off. This should not happen in a country with a democratic system.

"So, I urge to the Prime Minister to expedite the matter," he said in a press conference at the Warisan Headquarters on Tuesday.

Mohd Shafie also said the Prime Minister could present the bill in Parliament because the latter now has the authority to do so.

"I understand that this is no longer under the cabinet's authority, the Prime Minister has the jurisdiction to determine the date the bill will be presented.

"I have no information on the contents of the bill, but I will support it and ensure that the contents are in line with not only based on prevention to avoid them from doing this in the future," he said.

On Sunday, Kukusan state assemblyman Rina Jainal announced that she was leaving Parti Warisan, thus making it six assemblymen who had left the party since last year.