Azmin: DAP demanded, but was not promised second Deputy Speaker post

(Malay Mail Online) – Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali today denied he promised DAP a second Deputy Speaker post, saying it was only a demand the party made to the Pakatan Rakyat leadership.

Azmin said that, for now, the Selangor state legislative assembly will remain with one Deputy Speaker, PAS assemblyman Shafie Ngah.

“There was no promise. If there was a promise made, why would there need to be a discussion?” Azmin told reporters when met at the state assembly lobby here.

“The matter was brought up by DAP and I have discussed it with (Selangor DAP chief) Tony Pua. But this has to be decided by the Pakatan Rakyat presidential council,” the Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman added.

PR ally PAS has chastised DAP for its insistence on a second Deputy Speaker post, saying that current Shafie is more than capable of carrying out his duties.

Selangor PAS deputy commission Sallehen Mukhyi said yesterday the money for a second Deputy Speaker would be better off utilised for the development of Selangor and its people.

Selangor DAP wants a second Deputy Speaker post be given to the party, claiming that Azmin Ali and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s promise of an extra Selangor state executive council post to DAP did not materialise.

“We (DAP) are asking for it,” Selangor DAP chief Tony Pua told Malay Mail Online when contacted earlier this week.

PAS’s Bangi assemblyman Shafie 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 was named Selangor MB following an acrimonious move to remove his predecessor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.