KOTA KINABALU – Papar MP Datuk Armizan Ali has maintained that he did not flout anti-party hopping laws, insisting he was already a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) member when contesting in the 15th general election last month.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said it was unnecessary for him and three other ex-Bersatu MPs to vacate their seats following their decision to quit the party after the election.
“We contested under the GRS ticket, (so) the question whether we had crossed the floor should not arise,” he said when asked to respond to a notice filed by Sabah Bersatu to the Dewan Rakyat speaker on the status of the four lawmakers.
Besides Armizan, the three other MPs are Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan (Batu Sapi), Jonathan Yasin (Ranau) and Matbali Musah (Sipitang).
The notice to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker was filed by Sabah Bersatu chief and Beluran MP Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee.
Kiandee said the move was aimed at determining whether the parliamentary seats were vacated in view of Article 49A(3) of the federal constitution, as the four MPs contested in the general election as Bersatu members using the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) logo.
Taking a swipe at Kiandee, Armizan said he might have been frustrated at not being picked as a GRS candidate.
Kiandee defended the Beluran seat on a Perikatan Nasional ticket instead after his name was not selected in the GRS-Barisan Nasional lineup ahead of the election.
The four MPs were among other Sabah Bersatu members led by its then-chief Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor who quit the party on December 10. They said they were direct GRS members and thus unaffected by anti-party hopping provisions in the federal constitution.
GRS also moved to drop Bersatu as a coalition member while retaining Hajiji as GRS chairman.
As both developments took place after GE15 and after winning seats, opinion is divided on whether the four MPs are in violation of anti-party hopping provisions. – The Vibes, December 29, 2022
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