GABUNGAN Rakyat Sabah (GRS) has no objection to tabling the anti-party hopping bill in the Sabah assembly and further discussion is needed for this to happen, the coalition’s secretary-general Masidi Manjun said.

Masidi, who is also state local government and housing minister, said obviously GRS leaders will need to sit down and discuss the matter but is positive the move to table the bill will be accommodated.

He said the bill can establish stability in governing the state and it is good for Sabah politics.

“It is a question of when, whether we need to have a special session just for this or perhaps we want to consider having it passed during the budget session in either November or December, we have no problem as far as (the state) government is concerned.

“Yet I can’t say for sure because I’m not the speaker, I can’t decide which agenda has to be decided, but what I’m saying is that obviously we have no objection for that purpose,” he told reporters in Kota Kinabalu today.

On Thursday, the constitution (amendment) bill (no. 3) 2022 to create a provision prohibiting MPs from changing parties was passed in the Dewan Rakyat, with 209 out of 220 MPs voting in favour.

On the same day, Parti Bersatu Sabah president Maximus Ongkili, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs), said it is important for the Sabah and Sarawak assemblies to table the bill quickly because the amendment did not apply to them.

Yesterday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that he had been informed that Sabah, Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan would amend their constitutions to reflect the amendment in those states. – Bernama, July 31, 2022.