Kedah State Legislative Assembly Opposition leader Datuk Johari Abdul who had vacated his Gurun state seat, has been voted as the Dewan Rakyat speaker taking over from Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun.
The Dewan Rakyat chose its new Speaker through a secret ballot.There were two names submitted for the position, the Lower House today called for its members to vote for a new Speaker.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim earlier tabled a motion for former Sungai Petani member of Parliament Datuk Johari Abdul to be made the new speaker and this was supported by his deputy Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Larut MP who was recently named opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin proposed former Kangar MP Tan Sri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad for the post. His motion was supported by Pas secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan.
Johari is a well known long-term loyalist of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim,
He had earlier vacated his Gurun State Seat
He said the content of the letter read: "I, Datuk Johari Abdul hereby informing the speaker that I am vacating N20 Gurun state seat that I represent effective immediately.
Johari also expressed his gratitude to the people and voters in Gurun for their faith in him to shoulder responsibilities as Gurun assemblyman.
The former Kedah PKR chairman had won the Gurun state seat in the 14th General Election (GE14) held in May 2018 after defeating three other candidates with 4,207 majority votes.
He had pulled 10,732 votes in a four-cornered battle against Boey Chin Gan (Barisan Nasional), Muzaini Azizan (Pas) and Independent candidate M. Palaniappan.
In the GE14, Johari had also defended his Sungai Petani parliamentary seat for the third term in a row after defeating three other candidates with 21,569 majority votes.
However, Johari did not defend the seat in the recently-concluded GE15 to make way for his son Taufiq Johari.
Taufiq won the Sungai Petani parliamentary seat in his general election debut, making him the sole Pakatan Harapan MP in Kedah after Perikatan Nasional won the other remaining 14 parliamentary seats in Kedah.
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