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As Malaysia’s parliament resumes, will it be Najib Razak’s last meeting?
- At the top of the agenda is a proposed anti-party hopping bill, which was mooted last year following a political coup that triggered a crisis that persists today
- But that plan may be stymied, as PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Umno party presses for snap polls that analysts say will delay graft cases involving ex-premier Najib Razak and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
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Malaysia’s parliament resumes on Monday for its much-anticipated second meeting of the year, as political parties ramp up preparations for general elections that could be called any time now.
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At the top of the agenda is a proposed anti-party hopping bill, which was mooted and expedited over the past year following the mass defection of MPs that led to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan coalition in 2020, and the ensuing political crisis that persists today.
That crisis is threatening to come to a head over the next few weeks, as Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob grapples with mounting pressure from his Umno party, particularly from party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and former premier Najib Razak to call for early polls this year.
To analysts, the maths is simple – early elections will put on hold the multiple court cases that Ahmad Zahid and Najib, along with a bevy of senior party leaders, face over alleged corruption while they were in power, which they eventually lost in the watershed 2018 national polls.
Of the group, Najib, who is the first prime minister in Malaysia to lose an election, has already been found guilty of corruption involving a former subsidiary of corruption-tainted fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). He has denied all wrongdoing and will mount his final appeal against his 12-year jail sentence next month.
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