PETALING JAYA: Bersatu has two options to challenge Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul’s decision to allow the four Gabungan Rakyat Sabah MPs who had quit Sabah Bersatu to keep their parliamentary seats.
Johari said the first option was for Bersatu to move a motion in the Dewan Rakyat asking for a revision of his decision.
“Or they can go to court. Those are the options they have,” he said when contacted for comments on Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s remarks that Johari had erred in his decision.
Muhyiddin said Johari had misinterpreted the Bersatu party constitution, which in turn led to a mistaken declaration that the four MPs did not have to vacate their seats under the anti-hopping law as stipulated by Article 49A (3) of the Federal Constitution.
“Johari claimed that the four (MPs) had become direct members of GRS on Oct 27 and were no longer Bersatu members when they contested in the 15th General Election on Nov 19,” the Perikatan Nasional chairman said in a statement on Facebook yesterday.
“He claimed that based on his interpretation of Clause 10.2.3 of the Bersatu constitution, the then four candidates had lost their Bersatu membership by becoming direct members of GRS, which is wrong.
“This is because Bersatu was still one of the founding and component members of GRS, meaning it should not be interpreted as ‘another political party’ yet at the time of the election.
“As such, their inclusion as direct members of GRS had not affected their status as Bersatu members yet,” he said.
Muhyiddin added that Bersatu would refer the matter to the courts.
The four MPs are Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali (Papar), Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan (Batu Sapi), Datuk Matbali Musah (Sipitang) and Datuk Jonathan Yasin (Ranau).
Armizan told the press on Monday that Johari had copied them in an email to Bersatu.
“I cannot release the contents of the email but all I can say is that there is no need for us to vacate our seats,” he said when contacted.
On Dec 29, Bersatu vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the party had sent a notice to the Dewan Rakyat about vacancies in the four parliamentary seats.
He also said that former Sabah Bersatu chief Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor had on Nov 2 made a public announcement that six of 13 GRS candidates were from Bersatu.
According to Kiandee, a letter from Sabah Bersatu to Muhyiddin dated Nov 3 also showed that the four were contesting as members of Bersatu.
However, Kiandee said that on Dec 10, Hajiji announced that Sabah Bersatu party leaders, including its MPs, had left the party, citing consideration of the current political landscape.
He said the act of the four MPs sitting in the government bloc in the Dewan Rakyat under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was an act of “crossing the floor”.
