KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 — The outcome of seat negotiations among national unity government parties will be known this month, Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said.
He also said the negotiations for the six state elections were ongoing, when asked if these have been settled ahead of the polls expected in July or early August.
“(Negotiations are) not finalised. At state level, (they) have been asked to discuss. Will be known end of this month,” Bung told reporters when met at the Menara Dato Onn today.
In February, Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said he and his counterparts from Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu have tentatively agreed to dissolved their respective assemblies in the last two weeks of June.
In the 2022 general election, the six states did not dissolve their respective state assemblies during and must do so this year as the terms of their current legislative assemblies will expire.
When asked on Sabah’s passage of the anti-party hopping law, Bung said it was overdue.
“It’s been passed. Well, we have been waiting for it to be tabled because before it was tabled so many people were jumping (party hopping). We won’t want our peoples’ representatives to be tukang lompat (party-hoppers),” he said.
The Sabah assembly yesterday passed an amendment to the state constitution to discourage political defections that have become associated with the state.
The amendment was approved almost unanimously by lawmakers in attendance via a voice vote.
A separate vote was also held on another amendment to remove clause in the Sabah constitution related to the criteria for appointing the chief minister, which was appended to the Bill.
Speaker Datuk Kadzim Yahya allowed the House to take a separate vote for the controversial deletion after state Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal made the request for one.
