Sosma vote recount shows govt Bill defeated by a single vote, says Speaker

KUALA LUMPUR: A recount of votes for Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) amendment revealed that the government Bill was defeated by a single vote, says Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun(pic).

The revelation came to light when Datuk Seri Salim Shariff (BN-Jempol) was said to have mistakenly marked Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh (BN-Besut) as absent when votes were being tallied on the Bill on Wednesday (March 23).

"YB Jempol informed me that he was tasked to tally the vote list for Bloc D1 when voting was held on the Bill tabled by the Home Minister on Wednesday.

"He admitted that there was an oversight when he marked Besut as absent although he was present," Azhar said in Parliament on Thursday (March 24).

Azizan said he was exercising powers under the House Rules to amend the voting results.

"The results of those who supported the Bill is changed to 84 to 85.

"The results of absentees is also changed from 50 to 49.

"Those who voted against still remains at 86," he added.

On Wednesday, the government suffered a shock defeat after a motion to continue with the powers to detain suspects for up to 28 days without trial under Sosma was shot down when put to the vote in the House.

This is the first time that a government Bill was defeated in Parliament.

Meanwhile, Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai) expressed dismay at the mistake as he said this was not the first time such a mistake happened during vote counting.

"I hope the Speaker can consider improving how votes are cast and tallied.

"It is still being done manually now," he said, citing instances where there have been cases where MPs who were absent were almost marked as present.

Several MPs also called for improvement to the vote counting system.

Azizan assured MPs that the CCTVs were examined to determine if Idris was actually in the House before the changes were made.

He agreed that there should be improvements to the system.

"I am open to proposals. Maybe it is time for us to implement virtual or hybrid sittings as we have the technology to do so," he said.

He added that the proposed improvements could be brought up for discussion.