Opposition claims 52 MPs voted against ministry’s budget, not 51

KUALA LUMPUR: The opposition is to reveal the full list of 52 MPs who had voted against a ministry’s federal Budget allocation for 2018.

The move is 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.

“We will do this by noon tomorrow,” said Johari Abdul (PKR-Sungai Petani) when met at a fruit carnival held at the Dewan Rakyat.

Earlier in the Dewan Rakyat, Johari had said since Section 99 of the Standing Orders stipulates that the decision of the speaker is final, he would seek the advice of the speaker on the matter.

This is because, he claimed, during the counting of votes for the ministry on Nov 20, a mistake had occurred. The PKR chief whip claimed 52 lawmakers had voted against the budget, and not 51 as announced.

He urged the speaker to show the ballot box.

However, Deputy Speaker Ismail Mohamad Said had said the final decision had already been made.

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. -FMT