GEORGE TOWN, Oct 8 — The Penang state government is dropping its intention to table a motion to force four assemblymen, who defected from Pakatan Harapan (PH), to vacate their seats under the state’s anti-hopping law in the upcoming state assembly.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state exco made this decision yesterday due to the current public health situation.
“We are not abandoning the motion. We will continue to pursue the motion until the next state assembly or until the public health situation is under control,” he said during a press conference at his office today.
The state had initially planned to table the motion at the state legislative assembly which will be held between October 12 and 19.
The motion was to declare four state seats — Teluk Bahang, Seberang Jaya, Bertam and Sungai Acheh — vacant as per Article 14A of the state constitution.
Article 14A(1) of the state constitution provides that a member of the legislative assembly shall vacate his seat if having been elected as a candidate of a political party, he resigns or is expelled from or ceases to be a member of the party.
Chow is confident that motion would be approved by the state assembly with a strong majority which will pave the way for by-elections for the four seats.
However, based on the drastic spike of Covid-19 cases due to the Sabah state elections, he believed that if by-elections are held at this time, the public’s health might be compromised.
He said the Covid-19 situation was the main consideration that led to the state exco’s decision to postpone the tabling of the motion.
“We will propose that the motion be withdrawn until the next state assembly or until the public health situation is under control to allow by-elections in the affected seats,” he said.
“If by-elections are held during this period, we saw what happened in Sabah, which led to a spike in cases in the whole country. We do not want this to happen here,” he added.
Chow said the state does not condone the action of the four state assemblymen who have left the PH coalition and are no longer in support of the Penang PH state administration after the fall of the federal government in February.
The state, had on July 29, announced its decision to table the motion to force the four assemblymen to vacate their seats.
The four assemblymen involved are Dr Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungai Acheh), Zolkifly Md Lazim (Teluk Bahang) and Khaliq Mehtab Mohd Ishaq (Bertam), all of whom left PH to join Perikatan Nasional (PN).
All four had contested under the PKR logo under PH in the 2018 elections.
