Public surveys on PM’s tenure and anti-hopping Bill

TWO public surveys will be conducted before the law to limit the tenure of the prime minister and to prevent lawmakers from defecting to other parties is introduced, says Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

He said the first questionnaire from the Prime Minister’s Department’s Legal Affairs Division would be given to the public and MPs from Nov 23 to Dec 7 next year.

The second, on limiting the prime minister’s term to 10 years, could be answered from now to Dec 8 this year, he said during Question Time in Parliament yesterday.

The Minister in charge of Parliament and Law was responding to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PH-Port Dickson), who asked the government for an update on the recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Pakatan Harapan and the government.

The historic bipartisan MOU was signed on Sept 13.

Wan Junaidi also said a meeting would be held next month between Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (BN-Pengerang) and heads of political parties on the anti-party hopping Bill.

He added that a draft of the Bill has been prepared but was under embargo.

Wan Junaidi explained that there were still many related policy matters which remained unresolved during a meeting with members of the steering committee on Political Transformation and Stability on Nov 24.

“A technical committee will be formed with three Opposition MPs and three backbenchers to review these unresolved matters,” he added.

He also said the Prime Minister’s Department Legal Affairs Division along with the Attorney-General would submit their preliminary findings on the Bill to limit the prime minister’s term to 10 years latest by the end of the month.