KUALA LUMPUR: A heated argument erupted at the Dewan Rakyat today after MPs were told the bloc voting for the finance ministry’s 2021 budget yesterday was wrongly counted.
The chaos started after deputy speaker Rashid Hasnon said he was informed by Shabudin Yahaya (BN-Tasek Gelugor) that he (Shabudin) had wrongly included an Umno MP in the list to support the ministry’s budget at the committee stage.
Rashid said Shabudin had informed the speaker that he had wrongly included Nazri Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas) in the list even though Nazri was not in the hall during the voting.
With this, Rashid said, the finance ministry’s budget was supported by 106 MPs against 95 objections. “Those absent were 19 MPs, and not 18,” he said.
However, opposition MPs were up in arms as they said this should not have happened as the Perikatan Nasional government only had a majority of two MPs. They demanded another vote.
Fuziah Salleh (PH-Kuantan) said such errors should not have happened because of the government’s wafer-thin majority
RSN Rayer (PH-Jelutong) questioned the credibility of the voting process as “Padang Rengas (Nazri) was included in the list” even though he was not in the hall.
“How do we make sure this does not happen again? Action has to be taken,” Rayer said.
However, Rashid said the “facts were corrected” after the error was discovered.
When asked to explain, Shabudin said he had no intention to cheat the Dewan Rakyat or to go against the Standing Orders.
“A few minutes before that, I saw Padang Rengas (Nazri). Maybe at that time (during the voting) he was not there. I thought he was there, Shabudin said.
A shouting match ensued with Hanipa Maidin (PH-Sepang) demanding that the speaker resign over what he said was a “shameful” incident.
Rashid demanded that Hanipa retract the remarks, which he did later.