The move was to counter the official result of the Dewan Rakyat, which listed 51 MPs as voting against the domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism ministry’s (KPDNKK) portion of the 2018 Budget passed on Monday.
In the list, it was stated that 19 PKR MPs voted against the budget, 20 from DAP, five from Amanah, six from PAS and one from Warisan.
In a press conference today, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo said the opposition MPs have filed a motion under Standing Order 43 of the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders, calling for speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to review the decision made by his deputy Ronald Kiandee, that 51, not 52, voted against the budget.
He said under the provision, the speaker has the right to review the decision, hence the move to file the motion.
“As an MP, I view this very seriously. Firstly the counting. You cannot have a situation where what is announced is different than the information we have now. That is enough for a review and for this decision to be reconsidered,” Gobind said.
Seremban MP Anthony Loke said a review of the decision would be very simple, as there were many close-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the chambers, and the 52 opposition MPs can be identified through the footage.
Loke said Pandikar could easily order the IT division to see if the 52 MPs were present during the bloc vote.
Loke also said e-voting should be carried out in the Dewan Rakyat, as the current practice of bloc voting has lost its credibility.
Meanwhile, Gobind also pointed to the actions of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Hamzah Zainudin while the votes were being counted.
“We do not want it to be a habit for the minister in question to approach the parliament secretary’s table when the votes are being counted. How is that possible?
“We are of the view that the minister has to be referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee,” he said at a press conference in Parliament here today.
Another point of contention for the opposition was that MPs who were late coming into the lower house should not have been allowed to vote then.
Gobind questioned if the Malaysian Parliament adopted the approach of waiting for MPs who need to be present in the house, and when the number is right, “we quickly say voting is closed and we win with one vote”.
“The votes of four MPs who were late should be rejected, and a recount carried out to confirm the right decision in the bloc vote,” he said.
On whether the opposition will take action against its MPs who were absent during the bloc vote, as per what Barisan Nasional (BN) had done against its absent MPs, Loke said the issue did not arise as no specific instructions had gone out for Pakatan Harapan (PH) MPs to be present that day.
“Our strategy was to ambush. There was no instruction for the MPs to come,” he said.
Shah Alam MP Khalid Abd Samad also weighed in on the matter, saying it was not a matter of indiscipline, and added that they were confident those who were absent had valid reasons for doing so.
During the winding up of the debate on Monday night, the Dewan Rakyat was almost empty, with most BN MPs not on the floor.
Deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee instructed for the house bell to be rung for two minutes to summon MPs outside, before deciding on the vote.
Government lawmakers then rushed into the house to vote and BN won by a razor-thin margin of one vote.
However, opposition MPs argued that the house was out of order for delaying the vote count with the intention of ensuring more BN MPs could be present to submit their vote.
In response, deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee said there was no provision in the Standing Orders that denied lawmakers the right to participate in the voting process if they came in late.
Opposition claims 52 MPs voted against ministry’s budget, not 51
Ministry’s budget allocation passed by just one vote in Dewan