PETALING JAYA: Amendments to the Federal Constitution on citizenship laws will be put to the vote on Thursday (Oct 17), says Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
A motion was passed earlier stating that the Dewan Rakyat proceedings on Wednesday (Oct 16) would only end after the citizenship Bill was dealt with by the House, which meant its passing.
However, at about 4pm, Saifuddin held a press conference to confirm that the Bill would be voted on the following day, giving 59 MPs the chance to debate it.
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The Bill was tabled for its first reading on March 25, with the second reading slated two days later.
However, the Dewan Rakyat was adjourned shortly after the second reading by Saifuddin before the Bill was debated and put to a vote.
In the previous parliamentary meeting in July, debate and voting on the Bill were once again deferred until the current meeting in October.
The Bill seeks to amend Part II of the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution to give Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses the automatic right to confer citizenship on their children born overseas.
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Among the amendments are to Clause 2 of Article 15 of the Constitution to lower the age limit for citizenship application to 18 from 21 in line with the voting age in Malaysia; as well as the definition of "child" as provided in the Child Act 2001 and the age of majority as provided in the Age of Majority Act 1971.
There are several other amendments.
The delay in passing the citizenship law was due to criticism and concerns from several quarters resulting in the Bill being referred to three separate Parliamentary Special Select Committees for fine-tuning.
