4. ability of a legislator to influence such outcomes.
The structures of Malaysia’s electoral system and party politics provide an interesting perspective to the hopping of legislators across party lines. In this country, one important question that has to be addressed is the election of individual representatives for constituencies.
Who or what is being voted for is the voter entrusting the vote to a candidate, party, coalition or all of them ? (Wong Chin Huat [2020] Why recall elections and not anti-hopping law?).
Second, while there are calls for hopping legislators to resign, there is a law in Malaysia that deters this act. Currently, our federal and state constitutions bar a legislator who resigns mid-term from contesting for the next five years.