ANWAR Ibrahim is unable to become prime minister even if he is released early from prison, unless a constitutional provision that disqualifies him from contesting in elections is removed by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.

Under Article 48 of the Federal Constitution, an MP is disqualified if he or she is convicted of an offence and is sentenced to jail for no less than a year, or to a fine not less than RM2,000, and has not received a pardon.

A person’s disqualification from Parliament may be removed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. If not, the disqualification will cease at the end of five years, starting from the date of the person’s release from custody

As such, regardless of how early Anwar may be released from prison, he is still disqualified from running in elections for five years from the day of his release.

PKR has been pressing for Anwar, its de facto leader, to be installed as prime minister within a year if the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan seizes federal power in the 14th general election.

The polls must be held by August next year. Anwar could be released in June under a one-third remission of his prison sentence, at the discretion of the Prisons Department director-general.

Installing him as prime minister was one of three conditions PKR has placed before PH and its chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamed. The other two are that PKR be allocated the bulk of federal seats in Peninsular Malaysia and that Dr Mahathir agree to reform key institutions in the country.

The conditions, which have not been denied by the party’s leadership, were set forth as PH dithers over a formal announcement of its prime minister candidate. Except for PKR, other component parties Bersatu, DAP and Amanah have agreed to name Dr Mahathir.

Some political analysts have said naming Dr Mahathir as the candidate was a winning strategy to convince Malay voters.

Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail on February 10, 2015, for sodomising his former assistant Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan. 

Talk of his early release was revived when Prime Minister Najib Razak, his deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and cabinet minister Mohamed Nazri Aziz paid him separate visits in November while he was recuperating from surgery in hospital.

All prisoners are automatically entitled to the one-third remission, lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu said.

This means Anwar could be out in June next year, 20 months early from the end of his five-year prison term.

Prisoners could be granted remission for displaying good behaviour during the imprisonment.

“That basically means the prisoner did not cause trouble. Anyone can be granted remission, unless the person is a nuisance in prison,” said Baljit, who is also with the Malaysian Bar criminal law committee.

While photos of visits by Najib, Zahid and Nazri sparked a social media frenzy of claims of electioneering by BN, others are seeing it as an acknowledgement that Anwar was no longer an “enemy of the state”, said Yusmadi Yusoff, coordinator for the Free Anwar Campaign.

“The prime minister, deputy and senior minister’s visit to Anwar was full of warmth. Najib said the visit was made on humanitarian grounds. Nazri also said his visit was made out of friendship. 

“To me, these are grounds to appeal to the King to give Anwar a pardon so he can be released,” Yusmadi, a lawyer and PKR’s former Balik Pulau MP, told The Malaysian Insight.

If Anwar is not granted the one-third remission, the only other way for him to get out of jail early is through a royal pardon, both Yusmadi and Baljit said.

This can be done on the advice of the Pardons Board.

Yusmaidi said the visit by the three leaders was clearly meant to send a message to the Pardon’s Board.

“The Pardons Board must act responsibly. This is a sign by the top leaders of this country,” said Yusmadi.

Yusmadi said Anwar had been an exemplary inmate at Sungai Buloh prison and was someone whom other inmates went to for advice.

“I was informed by the prison guards that in the eyes of the other inmates, Anwar Ibrahim is a very positive person and is a source of inspiration.

“Many inmates will go to Anwar to ask for his opinion on things, including those detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) to ask Anwar for advice, and Anwar will then check with me,” said Yusmaidi, who is also political secretary to Anwar’s wife and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Yusmadi said here were several reasons why Anwar must be freed immediately, among them, the allegation that RM9.5 million, which is linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal, was paid to Umno lawyer Shafee Abdullah, who was the public prosecutor in Anwar’s trial.

The Free Anwar Campaign and the opposition have also held that the case was political in nature and that Anwar was framed, an opinion shared by international bodies such as the Working Group of Arbitrary Detentions under the United Nations and also the International Parliamentary Union (IPU).

There was also allegations of judicial bias and “prosecutorial misconduct” during the trial, Yusmadi added. – December 31, 2017.