Legally Wrong For Azalina To Temporarily Chair Parliament Session Hanipa

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Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin said it was legally wrong for Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun to ask Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said to chair yesterday’s Parliament sitting.
This is because Rule 6 of the Standing Orders states that if there is a vacancy in the deputy speaker positions, the House shall proceed to elect two “at the first convenient sitting of a newly elected House or at the commencement of public business at the first meeting of the House” after the vacancy occurred.
“In my view, it was legally wrong for Azalina to sit as deputy speaker as she has duly stepped down. Meaning there is a vacancy which Parliament needs to fill in as soon as possible, that is the first order of the day.
“It is not a question about Azalina. It is a question of blatantly disrespecting the law,” Hanipa (above) said in a statement today.
Yesterday, Azalina said she had been asked by Azhar to temporarily chair the Parliament sitting under Rule 7(3) of the Standing Orders.
Rule 7(3) states that the speaker may, at any time during a sitting, ask a member to take the chair temporarily, without formal communication to the House, and such member shall be invested with all the powers of the speaker.
Hanipa said according to the Standing Orders, there must be two deputy speakers and if there are any vacancies, a new one must be elected as soon as possible.
One deputy speaker position was vacated after Azalina stepped down last month, saying she wanted a “reset” of Parliament.




Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said
The election of the new deputy speaker had been listed first on the order paper after the question-and-answer session on Tuesday, but it was postponed to the next parliamentary sitting.
De facto Law Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had justified the move by saying that the government wanted to amend the Federal Constitution - to create a third deputy speaker post for the opposition.
However, several opposition MPs had urged for the election to be fast-tracked, due to the burden on the speaker’s office.
Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi has also since accused Bersatu and several allied independent MPs of blocking the move to appoint Pontian MP Ahmad Maslan - Umno’s candidate - as a Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker.
The opposition had nominated Teluk Intan MP Nga Kor Ming as a candidate for the post as well. - Mkini

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