THE Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-led State Government has dismissed accusations that it is purposely delaying the tabling of the anti-hopping law to facilitate crossovers from the state Opposition.GRS Secretary-General Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said he believed that the Anti-Hopping Bill would be tabled in the State Legislative Assembly sitting in March.
“We are all supportive of it (the Anti-Hopping Bill) for the state,” he said in response to Parti Warisan President Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal who said
in Parliament that Sabah must implement the anti-party hopping law to stop crossovers through the enticement of assemblymen.
Warisan, which won 23 seats in the 2020 State Election, has since lost nine elected representatives through defections, with the latest three assemblymen crossing over to support the GRS State Government led by Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
Shafie alleged in Parliament that the three were offered financial incentives to cross over in support of GRS.
Sabah was the first state in the country to introduce the anti-defection law in 1987, during the PBS government’s rule, but in 1994 was deemed against the freedom of association allowed under the Federal Constitution during the Mahathir administration.
“It enabled Umno to take over the State Government via crossovers.
