KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — MCA will only get one executive council seat in the Kedah government, the state’s Mentri Besar Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir has said.

Mukhriz was responding to MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’s request for the party to be given two spots in the Kedah’s 10-seat exco.

“Actually, the vacancy for the purposes of appointing a MCA representative is only one, we’ve kept (it) for a representative from MCA from before, and this is what we want to fill now,” Mukhriz (picture) was quoted as saying in a report by Mingguan Malaysia, the Sunday edition of Utusan Malaysia, today.

Mukhriz said the single spot would be taken up by MCA’s Gurun state assemblyman Dr Leong Yong Kong, after the latter is sworn in on November 18.

Dr Chua had said he would pass on MCA’s request for two Kedah exco seats to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman.

“I feel Gerakan will understand because the party does not have any assemblyman in Kedah,” Dr Chua had said on Friday in a report by The Star today.

Besides Dr Leong, MCA’s Chua Thiong Gee had won the Kulim state seat in Kedah in the 13th general elections, while Gerakan reportedly did not win any state seats in Kedah.

According to The Star newspaper, two seats were apparently reserved for the MCA and Gerakan in the Kedah state exco.

The two BN component parties had sworn they would refuse all government posts following a dismal showing at the national polls, but MCA members had in an extraordinary general meeting on October 30 voted to reverse its leaders’ earlier stand and allow them to take up office in the local government, among other things.