Sabah's history of party hopping has ended, says Hajiji

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah's history of party hopping will be a thing of the past with the passing of the anti-party hopping law, says Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

"With this (anti-hopping law), we don’t have to worry everyday about assemblymen jumping," he told reporters after the assembly unanimously passed the Sabah anti-party hopping Bill.

He said the law would be gazetted in the "next few days or weeks”.

"I am grateful because the amendments and the anti-party hopping Bill was passed, this shows we practise consensus in decision making for the good of the people," he said.

"This law is similar to the federal law. I believe that all political parties were very supportive and gave 100% support for the Bill," he added.

On Parti Warisan's concerns over the removal of Article 6(7) that provided a guide for the Governor to appoint a Chief Minister after election, Hajiji said that the amendment would give the Governor more leeway in deciding who to pick as Chief Minister.

"It will ease the TYT in making decisions because in the last election (September 2020), we faced this problem.

"The leader of the party with the most assemblymen did not have the majority of the seats.

"But the TYT used his discretion and appointed the leader who has the majority support of the House," he said.

Hajiji was referring to the 2020 election where Warisan and its partner Pakatan Harapan and Upko won 32 of the 73 state seats, while the loose coalition of GRS, involving Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional and three independents, won 41 seats.

The Governor used his discretion and picked Hajiji as Chief Minister.