THE amendments to the Federal Constitution to prohibit party hopping, which were passed by parliament this week, are expected to boost voter turnout and the people’s confidence in the next general election, analysts said.

“Although there are two more steps before the amendments are legally binding, I expect them to restore the people’s confidence in the electoral process,” said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Prof Dr Mazlan Ali.

Mazlan was commenting on Dewan Negara’s passing of the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 2022 on Provisions Preventing Members of Parliament from Switching Parties on Tuesday.

The bill will be sent to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for his royal assent before it is gazetted.

Although seven senators were absent, 52 voted for the bill after 33 senators debated the amendments.

On July 28, 209 lawmakers in the Dewan Rakyat voted for the bill with 11 absent. There were no opposing MPs.

Mazlan also said voter confidence is likely to improve as people now feel that the elected representatives cannot switch parties anymore.

“We still need to do more surveys to verify this, though,” said the political science lecturer.

Mazlan, who also conducts field studies on voter behaviour, said he is currently doing a survey in two constituencies in Selangor.

“We have asked voters in Sepang and Sementa whether they will come out to vote after the amendments are gazetted. We should get a clearer picture after that,” he said.

Another pollster, Ilham Centre director Hisomuddin Bakar, said the amendments give hope after voters were hit by the Sheraton Move in 2020.

“During our last field surveys in the Malacca and Johor state elections, we found that many voters, especially non-Malays, were unwilling to vote because of what happened in 2020,” he said.

“The respondents said they felt hopeless after seeing the government they voted for ousted after Bersatu quit Pakatan Harapan.”

But based on early responses from focus groups, Hisomuddin said, voters are more willing to vote again after the constitutional amendment bill was passed by parliament.

He said Ilham Centre expects the new law to spur people to come out to vote in the next general election.

“But we will need a national survey to know how much the improvement would be,” said the pollster.

Following the Sheraton Move and the Covid-19 pandemic, voter turnout in the last three state elections – in Malacca, Sarawak and Johor – saw record lows of 65.85%, 60.67% and 54.92% respectively.

In the 2018 general election, the voter turnout was 82.32%.

One of the factors cited for the reluctance to vote in the three state polls is political fatigue and disappointment over the rampant party hopping by lawmakers since 2018. – August 11, 2022.