MIDNIGHT DRAMA: Najib, Muhyiddin rush to Parliament to stop PKR's GE13 motion

KUALA LUMPUR - A late motion by the Opposition to amend the note of thanks to the King for his opening address had Prime Minister Najib Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin scurrying back to the Malaysian Parliament close to midnight to help their coalition foil the move.

But as it turned out, they needn't have bothered. Pandikar Amin Mulia, the Speaker often accused by the Opposition of being biased, rejected the motion.

"Pandikar gave a list of flimsy excuses as usual. He said it was not Parliament's role to question the Election Commission's appointment and so forth. But it was basically sheer disregard of the parliamentary process," MP for Batu Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

However, even if the motion had been battered through, the Opposition would have lost the vote as there only 30 PKR Members of Parliament still in the House, 5 from DAP and only one from PAS.

Although also not present in full force, Najib's BN coalition which won 133 seats had more lawmakers in the House last night.

"I think they (Najib and Muhyiddin) were worried they would not have enough MPs against us, so they rushed here. It shows they will fight to insist GE13 was clean when it was actually full of fraud," said Tian.

BN drafted address

In his opening address to the Parliament late last month, the King had in a speech written by the BN urged all parties to accept the results of the May 5 general election - the most-divisive ever seen in the country with widespread claims of vote rigging and cheating.

Despite winning 133 out of the Parliament's 222 seats, BN lost the popular vote for the first time since 1957. Najib could not explain how it was that BN could only win 47% of the total votes cast versus the 52% won by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

However, it is clear the outcome was due to the massive gerrymandering or unfair re-drawing of the constituency boundaries whilst the allegations of electoral fraud have also been too many and widespread to deny.

Anwar and Pakatan had refused to concede defeat. They also objected to the part of the King's address urging acceptance of the electoral outcome, pointing out that it was drafted by BN and was thus biased.

Proposed motion

The Opposition then filed a motion through the MP for Bukit Katil Shamsul Iskandar Akin to amend the note of thanks to include their reservations on the outcome of election. The amendment sought to include the following into the note of thanks:

> Dropping all members including the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Secretary of the Election Commission panel, to be followed by the acceptance of a new appointment process to ensure their replacements will be able to carry out the purpose and functions of the Commission with independence and gain public trust in accordance with the provisions of Article 114 (2) of the Constitution;

> Various election petitions were filed by both parties and these can form the basis for the acknowledgement that there was fraud in the election system, election results and thus the outcome can only be certified and accepted when electoral reforms are carried out;

> Ensure that the specific proposals the Select Committee on electoral improvements are implemented immediately, namely:

Access to a free and fair media.

Continuous cleaning of the electoral roll.

Balancing the fragmentation of seats in Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.

Studies to replace the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system

A balanced distribution of the process in order to meet the system of 'one person-one vote'

Malaysia Chronicle