This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 23, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The Election Commission’s (EC) redelineation report, which was tabled on Wednesday, can be taken out of Parliament despite being embargoed until next Wednesday, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said.

The ruling came after opposition members of parliment (MPs) questioned Pandikar’s initial decision to bar MPs from opening or reading the report until March 28.

Pandikar made the announcement during Minister’s Question Time (MQT) on Wednesday.

Earlier, during the day’s session, Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan (Kota Baru-PAS) stood up and asked whether MPs were allowed to leave the hall with the report.

Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai-PKR) joined in and said she was told by Dewan Rakyat staff in the morning that MPs were not allowed to even open nor read the report.

Pandikar responded that the rationale behind the instruction was to guarantee that the report would not be made public during the embargo.

“If I allow the document to be taken out of the hall, when it is published by the media or is known by any other parties, I cannot tell who is responsible,” Pandikar said.

Datuk Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena-Amanah) then suggested that Parliament could take action against any media house that publishes the report, instead of barring MPs from even reading the report.

“If that is the case, we might as well ask the staff to store all the reports in the Speaker’s office,” Mahfuz said.

However, Pandikar stuck to his stance.

Nurul Izzah then urged Pandikar to clarify whether MPs were allowed to read the report.

“If your decision is to restrict us from bringing out the reports, we can oblige, but at least let us digest the report here. It is a very long report,” she said.

The opposition MPs then called for a press conference to express their dissatisfaction over the restrictions.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (Permatang Pauh-PKR) said it was “unprecedented” for MPs to be disallowed from reading reports that were on their tables.

Halfway through the press conference, Pandikar, who was still chairing the MQT session in Dewan Rakyat, ruled that MPs are allowed to leave with the reports.