Assembly to sit two days; debate is shortened

Kota Kinabalu: The First Meeting of the First Term of the 16th Sabah State Legislative Assembly will be held for two days; namely on Thursday (Nov 12) and next Monday (Nov 16), by adopting the stipulated standard operating procedure (SOP), to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Sabah State Assembly Speaker Datuk Kadzim M.Yahya (pic) said the sitting, which would convene at 10 am without a parade, would be opened by the Yang Dipertua Negeri Sabah Tun Juhar Mahiruddin.

He said the sitting on Monday would begin with a question-and-answer session at 10am, followed by the debate on Tun Juhar’s key address by the assemblymen.

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“However, not all assemblymen will participate in the debate as we have to reduce the number of assemblymen for the session due to limited time. This is because, besides the debate, we will also table the state’s additional budget.

“However, for the 2021 State Budget, scheduled in December, we will give opportunity to all assemblymen to speak, if the situation allows it, with the usual time duration,” he said Tuesday, adding that the opening ceremony and sitting could be watched live via the Sabah government Youtube channel.

Bernama is made to understand that only official media would be allowed to conduct coverage at the Sabah State Assembly Building in limited numbers, namely, only two representatives from each agency.

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The media room would be opened on Monday with the Sabah Information Department officers supervising the compliance of the SOP.

The sitting would witness the changes in the seating arrangements of the elected representative in line with the new political alignment after the Sabah Heritage Party (Warisan) lost to Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) in the 16th Sabah state election on Sept 26.

GRS, comprising Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional and Parti Bersatu Sabah, obtained a simple majority after winning 38 out of 73 seats in the State Assembly, to form the government.