It said law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob must table the proposed bill in the upcoming Parliament session and ensure that it becomes law after considering the inputs of MPs, civil society organisations and the public.
Bersih said this was one of the key terms of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Ismail and Pakatan Harapan (PH).
It acknowledged that the issue was a complex one “with many definitions, legal, intra-party and electoral considerations”, and to find a perfect solution was “near impossible”.
However, what would be considered party-hopping at its most basic should be that an elected representative leaving his or her party to join another party or going independent, and an independent representative joining a political party.
“At the same time, an elected representative resigns on his or her own volition from the party or seat and if a representative is sacked by his or her party.
“If any of these took place, their seat would be declared vacant automatically and a by-election will be called.”
Bersih said although its preference was an anti-hopping recall law, it would support the enactment of the proposed bill, but hoped that Article 48(6), where a representative who resigned from his or her seat is barred from contesting for five years, was repealed.
This would allow a representative to resign as a matter of principle from his or her party and contest for the same seat to get a fresh mandate from voters.
Bersih also said the states should have the freedom to enact their own anti-hopping laws.
Recently, Wan Junaidi said while it was imperative to have an anti-hopping law to ensure confidence and good governance, there was no consensus on the term “anti-hopping”.
It was also reported that PH told the government last month that the MoU would be declared void if the anti-hopping bill was not tabled at the next Dewan session.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said PH had told Ismail the MoU would be “automatically cancelled” if the demand was not met.