KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan is set to re-look its “contracts” with assemblymen who defected after the September 2020 snap state election, says its secretary-general.
Datuk Loretto Padua said the decision to have a fresh look on the contracts came following the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision to order Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin to pay RM10mil for breaching an election bond with PKR after she defected in 2020.
He said they also wanted to study the grounds of the judgment before making any decision against the assemblymen who defected from the party.
“We haven’t got the grounds of the (High Court) decision. We will look at it from a different angle this time. We will go through the grounds of decision first then decide,” he added.
Former Warisan assemblyman Norazlinah Arif (Kunak) said that they did not have a bond agreement with Warisan.
“We should look into the details of the agreement between Zuraida and PKR, it was a bond.
“We do not have any bonds,” said Norazlinah, who joined Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor in February this year.
“I believe Zuraida’s case does not affect our decision.”
Warisan lost 11 of the 23 seats it won in the Sept 26, 2020, election due to defection to parties under Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Warisan candidates had signed contracts for their candidacy which included undated but pre-signed letters to vacate their seats if they quit Warisan to join another party.
The pre-signed letters to vacate the seat were not accepted by the state Speaker after the assemblymen informed the Speaker that they had no intention of vacating their seats.
Warisan then took out a suit against its Sebatik assemblyman Hassan Amir Gani who left the party to join GRS.
Hassan was the first to defect on Feb 26, 2021.
In June 2022, Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Justice Wong Siong Tung declared that the undated and unsigned resignation letters were unlawful.
In passing the judgment, Justice Wong said that an elected representative should be able act on his own independent judgment and should not be legally constrained by the party or the electorate.
He said the combination of undated signed resignation letters and pledges of loyalty to Warisan prior to the 2020 state elections equalled an unlawful scheme.
“An elected member of the legislature should be free to act according to the best of his or her ability and his independent judgment should not be legally constrained by obligations to his party or to the electorate or subject to be dictated by anybody.
“Any arrangement that fetters or deprives such freedom of elected members of the legislature will be contrary to public policy and is unlawful,” Justice Wong said, adding that any cause of action based on such an arrangement to deprive such freedom cannot be sustained in law.
In Zuraida’s case, Justice Akhtar Tahir said the bond signed by Zuraida on April 25, 2018, was a valid and binding contract.
