Govt’s Sosma amendment Bill defeated by one vote

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.

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

“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 the House.

The Speaker said he was exercising his powers under the House Rules to amend the voting results.

“The results of those who supported the Bill is amended from 84 to 85. The results of absentee votes is also changed from 50 to 49.

“Those who voted against the Bill remains at 86,” he added.

On Wednesday, the government’s motion to continue with the powers to detain suspects for up to 28 days without trial under Sosma was shot down when the amendment was put to the vote in the House.

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

A bloc vote happens when at least 15 MPs request for bloc voting be called and the Speaker is satisfied that the numbers of those who called for bloc voting are met.

Unlike a voice vote where the MPs will voice their support or otherwise for a particular Bill, the Speaker will ask that the House bell be rang for two minutes before vote counting takes place.

The Speaker will then appoint several MPs to be responsible for taking the attendance of MPs present in the respective blocs (MPs seats) in the House and taking their votes.

A vote count will then take place where MPs will mark the list given to them either with “Yea” or “Nay”.

This process takes 15 minutes to half an hour with the votes tallied and announced to the House by the Speaker.