ALOR STAR – The Kedah assembly will sit only after Parliament reconvenes, Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said.
He said there was no specific date set for the assembly to convene in the near future either virtually or in a hybrid format as it was still bound by the emergency ordinance.
“Whether (the Kedah assembly) will sit face to face or virtually, we will wait for Parliament to reconvene first,” he said in a brief statement via WhatsApp today.
Last Friday, Kedah Pakatan Harapan urged Sanusi to seek an urgent audience with state ruler Sultan Al-Aminul Karim Sultan Sallehuddin Sultan Badlishah to convene the assembly sitting as soon as possible.
This was after Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah on Wednesday expressed the view that Parliament should reconvene as soon as possible to allow the National Recovery Plan to be debated by members of the Dewan Rakyat.
It was decided, on the other hand, that the Kelantan assembly will also sit once Parliament reconvenes, said Speaker Datuk Abdullah Ya’kub after a meeting with Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob today.
“For now, the assembly cannot be held as it is bound by the emergency ordinance.
“As we all know, based on this ordinance, general and state elections, by-elections as well as Parliament and state assembly sittings cannot be held during the emergency period,” he said when contacted today.
The last time Kelantan’s state assembly convened was on April 14 last year but it only lasted 45 minutes due to movement control order regulations.
Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal, Tan Sri Syed Danial Syed Ahmad had also said that at the state level, the Malay rulers were of the view that the state legislatures in their respective states should be allowed to reconvene as soon as possible. – Bernama, June 20, 2021
