Pakatan never agreed on second Deputy Speaker post, Selangor DAP clarifies

(Malay Mail Online) – Selangor DAP chief Tony Pua denied today that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had agreed to give his party a second Deputy Speaker post, refuting an earlier claim made by DAP assemblyman Ng Suee Lim.

Pua also said that Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had previously only agreed to give an extra Selangor state executive council post to DAP – a plan which eventually did not “materialise.”

“Untrue. Pakatan leadership never agreed to give us 2nd (deputy) speaker (post).

“We (DAP) are asking for it,” Pua told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

Earlier today, DAP’s Ng had claimed that the PR leadership had agreed to Azmin’s promise of a second Deputy Speaker spot to DAP as part of the resolution to the prolonged mentri besar leadership crisis.

“This is not a question of gratitude. Delegates had asked why PKR can have an MB and add their numbers in the state executive council.

“This, (Deputy Speaker post) I was made to understand, was agreed by the Pakatan leadership,” Ng told reporters when met at the lobby of the Selangor state assembly.

Ng had said that Pua would meet with Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali soon to discuss the matter.

“If there is an agreement, state enactment can be changed (to install as DAP lawmaker as the second Deputy Speaker),” the DAP leader said.

PAS’s Bangi assemblyman Dr Shafie Ngah was appointed as state Deputy Speaker at the start of the Selangor legislative assembly last week.

DAP’s Subang Jaya state lawmaker, Hannah Yeoh, is currently the Selangor Speaker.

In September, Malay Mail Online reported that MB Azmin may appoint another Deputy Speaker in the Selangor legislative assembly to end the prolonged state leadership crisis and to placate parties which have supported his appointment as state mentri besar.

“Azmin Ali may need to appease PAS. Our compromise is that he will appoint two deputy speakers,” a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) source told Malay Mail Online back then.

“He promised to announce the second Deputy Speaker at a later stage,” the source had added then.

Azmin was named Selangor MB following an acrimonious move to remove his predecessor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.