.jpg "A woman watches a live broadcast of the third term of the 14th Penang State Legislative Assembly session on her phone in George Town October 12, 2020. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Sayuti Zainudin")
GEORGE TOWN, July 1 ― The Penang state government will convene a special session of its legislative assembly in August, or September at the very latest, after the Emergency Ordinance is lifted, if it fails to obtain the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s consent to hold it before then.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state is still awaiting Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s approval for the state to commence with its state legislative assembly before August.
He said there are now three options for the state to consider and for the next state exco meeting to decide.
“We will convene a special state legislative assembly session before August 1 after obtaining consent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong,” he said.
The second option was to commence with a special legislative assembly session in August after the Emergency Ordinance is lifted but without the 28-day notice.
The final option was to convene the legislative assembly in August or September with a 28-day notice and it will be officiated by the Penang Yang di-Pertua Negeri.
Chow said the state will take note of the most recent developments before making its final decision on when to convene the state legislative assembly.
The Penang state government wrote to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in June to obtain consent for the state legislative assembly to convene as soon as possible.
The Penang legislative assembly last convened under strict guidelines in October 2020 and Chow had said that the state can implement similarly strict standard operating procedures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 if the state is allowed to convene the legislative assembly now.
