Port Klang Assemblyman To Challenge Decision To Declare Seat Vacant

SHAH ALAM, Jan 20 (Bernama) -- Port Klang assemblyman Badrul Hisham Abdullah Thursday said would challenge Selangor State Assembly speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim's decision to declare his seat vacant.

Badrul Hisham said he would file an application to the court for a declaration that he was still the Port Klang assemblyman.

Asked when he will file the application, he said, "As soon as possible."

He was speaking to reporters after attending a Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblymen's gathering chaired by state BN deputy chairman Datuk Seri Noh Omar here Thursday.

Badrul Hisham said he would attend the state assembly's sitting on Monday as he had received an invitation from the House.

The state assembly speaker Wednesday declared the Port Klang state seat vacant, saying Badrul Hisham had failed to attend sittings for six months without a valid reason.

Teng said the seat fell vacant effective Jan 16.

Badrul Hisham said he had not been notified by the state assembly that his seat was declared vacant.

Teng asserted that there was no provision for Badrul Hisham to appeal against the decision (declaring the seat vacant) made under Articles 69 and 70 (1) of the Selangor Constitution.

Badrul Hisham won the Port Klang state seat on a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket, defeating independent candidate Nazir Mansor and BN's Roselinda Abd Jamil with a 4,407 majority.

However, he quit the party on 29 Oct, 2009 and became a BN-friendly assemblyman before eventually joining Umno in May last year.

In KUALA LUMPUR, MP for Kulim-Bandar Baharu Zulkifli Noordin said in his blog that the decision to declare the seat vacant was part of the state government's ploy to reduce the number of BN representatives during the special seating of the state assembly on Monday.

"When come to the crunch, the acts and drama to hold the special session will be exposed as the people will know that they will fail without the two-thirds majority, so they devise plans to get the two-thirds majority," he in said in his blog, zul4kulim.blogspot.com.

He said with 35 assemblymen compared to 20 BN assemblymen and one independent assemblyman, the PKR-DAP-PAS alliance was two seats shied of the two-thirds majority in the 56-seat state assembly.

Zulkifli anticipated that the state government's backbenchers would create an uproar which might culminate in Sungai Panjang assemblyman Dr Mohamad Khir, who was being charged with one count of graft, to be suspended from the sitting and given the marching order.

"I will not be surprised if other BN assemblymen will be dismissed, suspended or ordered to leave the House. That way, their number will be much bigger that the BN, thus they will get the two-thirds majority," he added.