PORT DICKSON, Oct 12 — New laws should be formulated to deal with elected representatives who deliberately vacate their seats without valid reasons, Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said today.

Abdul Rashid was responding to a question by the press during a press conference here on whether the ERC is working the Election Commision (EC) to deal with the issue of giving seats away and seat-buying between elected representatives.

"Yes, there should be a law perhaps under the purview of the parliament to deal with such matters,”' he said.

However, Abdul Rashid reiterated that such laws should not be under the purview of the EC.

"The EC cannot be responsible for such matters as they need to focus on the matter of electoral conduct and process,” he said.

The Port Dickson by-election was triggered when incumbent PKR MP Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah vacated the seat, ostensibly engineered by PKR to return Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to Parliament in his bid to become prime minister.