GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government is expected to table a bill at the next state legislative assembly sitting in August to “slightly amend” the state constitution to limit the appointment of an assemblyman as chief minister to only two times.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said that the state legal adviser had suggested for the sub-clause in item 7 of the state constitution to be added to accommodate the matter.
The proposed amendment will include “No member of the Legislative Assembly may be appointed as the Chief Minister more than twice” under clause (2A) of item 7.
“This is slightly different from what we have said earlier. We had said two terms but when we want to define it, there are some challenges to it. Two terms can be understood as two election terms where sometimes election can be held within five years and sometimes at only three years for a particular term.
“Our spirit of implementing this is that we want to ensure no Chief Minister will be allowed to hold the post for over 10 years or for too long. Hence, the legal adviser has come up with a simple proposal, we use ‘twice’ instead of ‘two terms’ so that the Chief Minister will not be appointed more than two times,” he told a press conference Wednesday.
In the recent 14th General Election (GE14), Penang Pakatan Harapan has pledged to implement the two-term limit for the Chief Minister post if the pact wins the election.
The move is also in line with the election pledge made by the pact at the Federal level to limit the post of Prime Minister to just two terms.
Recently, the state legal adviser had been tasked with coming out with a framework on how best to implement the two-term limit pledge.
With the proposal, for the sub-clause to be added, made known to the state government, Chow now wants a public discourse to take place to gather views before the amendment to the state constitution is made.
“People can email us or they can voice out through interviews with the media. I hope there will be a public discussion on the matter and we will take note of the people’s view on it.
“We want to hear the best suggestions or comments to this,” he added.