Speaker: No special Parliament sitting on March 2

Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Yusof.

PETALING JAYA: There will not be a special Parliament sitting to determine who will be prime minister on March 2, says Tan Sri Mohd Ariff Yusof.

The Parliament Speaker said that he had received a letter from interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, stating that the Government had agreed for a Dewan Rakyat meeting on Monday (March 2).

"However, in my opinion, the letter does not conform to Parliament's Standing Order 11(3) as it was not followed by a complete "Motion Notification"," he said in a statement on Friday (Feb 28).

He said that according to the Standing Order, the notice and date of the meeting had to be issued by him as the Speaker and that no notice had been issued as yet.

"Besides that, I believe that the need to have a special sitting will only be done after a royal decree by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in regards to the process of the appointment of the prime minister," he said.

Ariff said that he decided that there would be no special sitting on Monday, but that he would monitor the latest developments and that a statement on the notice and the date of the sitting would be forthcoming.

Standing Order 11(3) allows for a sitting to be held earlier than the actual scheduled Dewan Rakyat meeting, adding that a one-day notice to the Dewan Rakyat is also sufficient.

On Thursday (Feb 27), interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that a special Dewan Rakyat sitting would be convened on March 2 to determine who will be the next prime minister.

He said this was the conclusion of his meeting with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at the Istana Negara earlier in the day.

"After meeting with Members of Parliament for two days, there was no prime minister candidate with a distinct majority.

"So, the King said the right forum to decide will be through Dewan Rakyat," said Dr Mahathir at a press conference after unveiling the Economic Stimulus Package 2020.

He added that if the Dewan Rakyat failed to determine who should be prime minister, a snap election would be called.