Malaysia's government to reconvene Parliament before Aug 1
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia will reconvene Parliament for the first time this year in July, a minister said on Friday (July 2), just days after the King asked for the federal legislature to sit before the state of emergency expires on Aug 1.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Takiyuddin Hassan said that Parliament will sit “as soon as possible” on the instruction of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
The date will be decided at the next Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the minister added in a statement.
The King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, had conveyed his wish that Parliament sit before Aug 1 during a meeting with the Speakers of both the Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament on Tuesday.
The issue of exactly when Parliament should meet for the first time since December has been the subject of heated debate since the King and eight other state rulers said that the legislature should assemble as soon as possible.
Sultan Abdullah and the other rulers had convened a special meeting on June 16. Prior to that, the King had spent a week in a series of audiences with leaders of major political parties, heads of institutions and experts on the pandemic following the deadliest weeks of Malaysia’s Covid-19 outbreak.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin previously said that Parliament would sit by September at the earliest, when the Covid-19 outbreak eases. But he has come under increasing pressure to call for a sitting following the King’s comments.
Although Parliament is supposed to be recalled within six months of its last sitting in December, this constitutional provision is suspended during the current state of emergency, announced by the King on Jan 11.
It was imposed after two Umno lawmakers withdrew support for Mr Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional government, which holds a razor-thin majority in Parliament.
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