Nine states swear in new MBs

PETALING JAYA: As the dust settles following the 14th general election, heads of nine states have been sworn in while the chief minister of Penang will be sworn in today.

Only the mentris besar for Kelantan and Terengganu are from PAS, while the rest are from Pakatan Harapan (PH).

In ALOR STAR, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir was sworn in as Kedah head.

PH won 18 of the 36 seats in the state while Barisan Nasional (BN) won only three, with PAS securing 15 seats.

Mukhriz said the PH state government should not be seen as a minority government.

He said the state can be administered effectively, especially with the presence of 18 PH backbenchers, which may include an appointed state legislative speaker.

“It is a divided government but the state has a solid block and the people are behind us,” he said yesterday in his first press conference after being sworn in as the 13th mentri besar of Kedah.

Others who have been sworn in are Ahmad Faizal Azumu for Perak, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali (Selangor), Adly Zahary (Malacca), Aminuddin Harun (Negri Sembilan), Osman Sapian (Johor), Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar (Terengganu), Datuk Ahmad Yakob (Kelantan) and Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal as Sabah chief minister.

With the exception of Mukhriz, Mohamed Azmin and Ahmad Yakob, this is the first term as mentri besar for the others.

Shafie was the latest to be sworn in after Tan Sri Musa Aman was sworn in as chief minister on Thursday. But the state BN chief lost the support of six assemblymen who defected to Shafie’s Parti Warisan Sabah.