GEORGE TOWN, April 10 — Penang Umno said today it will table a motion demanding for Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s resignation, after he announced plans to file a motion condemning an Umno MP’s comments on rape victims.

Penang Umno state liaison chairman Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Osman said Penang Umno has decided to ask its Opposition Leader, Datuk Jahara Hamid, to table the motion at the state legislative assembly that will start on May 19.

"We want to reiterate our call to Lim to take leave or to resign from his chief minister post until his corruption case in court is over,” he said in a statement issued today.

He said Lim’s refusal to relinquish his post or to take leave due to the corruption charges against him has tarnished the authority of the Penang Chief Minister’s office.

"Witnesses especially government officials will be at a loss and feel pressured if they are called to give their testimony in court against a chief minister who is still in office,” he claimed.

He added that the long trial of the case will also disrupt the daily schedule of the chief minister and could adversely affect the state administration.

Zainal Abidin believed that Lim’s decision to file a motion at the legislative assembly against Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya was an act of "revenge”, and not due to what Shabudin had said while debating the Sexual Offences Against Children Bill 2017.

"The Penang chief minister will file the motion regardless of the explanations given by the MP in question.

"So we believe that this is his revenge against the Tasek Gelugor MP because it was the latter’s revelation of his property purchase below market value that had led to Lim being charged for corruption,” he said.

Last week, Shabudin came under fire after he suggested that statutory rape victims be allowed to marry their rapists as a remedy to social problems.

He later claimed his remarks were twisted by the press and threatened to sue any media that continued to misreport the issue.