Special committee should be set up to review Article 6 (7) of Sabah State Constitution - Warisan

KOTA KINABALU - Warisan has proposed for a special committee be set up at the state level that functions like a Parliamentary Select Committee to review Article 6 (7) of the Sabah State Constitution to ensure that the process of selecting a Chief Minister is more orderly and clear.

Its president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said it was important for the election of a Sabah Chief Minister not to be determined through statutory declarations (SD), which is feared to cause political uncertainty.

"Warisan has voiced that Article 6 (7) should not be repealed. If there are improvements we can change it. But, because they (state assemblymen) voted, it (has) been repealed. (However), they (the Sabah government) have promised to review it, involving members of the state assembly.

"I hope this matter will be followed up and the state government fulfills its promise to look at the framework of Article 6 (7) because what is mentioned there is the party with the majority should form the government," he said in a press conference here, today.

Yesterday, the Sabah State Legislative Assembly passed the Sabah State Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2023 related to anti-party hopping with the support of 75 assemblymen while four assemblymen did not attend the third reading tabled by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

On the second reading, a bloc vote was carried out for Clause 2 of the Bill, whereby 61 assemblymen agreed to drop Article 6 (7), 14 assemblymen disagreed, while four assemblymen were absent.

Article 6 (7) states that where a political party wins the majority of seats in the election, the leader of the party, who is also a Sabah assemblyman, shall be the member of the Legislative Assembly who is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Assembly (to be elected as Chief Minister).

Mohd Shafie who is also the Senallang assemblyman said what was important is that the leader and political party chosen to lead the administration of Sabah in the future should be an individual or party that participates in the election and gets a majority.

"We don't want a party that doesn't contest elections in Sabah to become the government. This contradicts the democratic system," he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Shafie, who is also the Opposition Leader in the Sabah State Assembly, said the unanimous support of the Sabah assemblymen for the bill was a clear manifestation of ensuring Sabah's political stability and hoped that it would be gazetted as soon as possible. - BERNAMA