KUALA LUMPUR: Ramli Nor (BN-Cameron Highlands) and Alice Lau (PH-Lanang) have been elected as the new Dewan Rakyat deputy speakers.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had nominated Ramli and Lau for the two vacant posts.
Meanwhile, Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (PN-Masjid Tanah) was the opposition’s sole candidate.
Ramli received 148 votes, the total number of MPs in the government bloc, while Lau obtained 146 votes. Mas Ermieyati only received 74 votes.
Ramli, the nation’s first and only Orang Asli MP, filled in as a deputy speaker last March, becoming the first Orang Asli to preside over Dewan Rakyat proceedings.
The Dewan Rakyat’s standing orders stipulate that the Speaker may ask any MP to chair the proceedings temporarily.
One of the deputy speaker’s posts was left vacant from August 2021 after BN’s Azalina Othman Said resigned, citing moral, personal and political conflicts.
Earlier today, former Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul was made the new Dewan Rakyat Speaker, taking over from Azhar Harun.
Johari had been nominated by Anwar, while opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin had nominated Radzi Sheikh Ahmad for the post.
Johari received 147 votes while Radzi obtained 74 votes. One MP, Hanifah Hajar Taib (GPS-Mukah), was absent.
Johari, of PKR, had opted out of the recent general election and vacated his Gurun state seat in Kedah yesterday.