Special session of state assembly to amend Sabah constitution
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said yesterday the special session of the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday will debate four bills, one of which is a proposed amendment to the state constitution.
Asked whether the proposed amendment to the constitution was on the term of office of the Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negeri, he said: “We will see when the time comes.”
He also said that amendments to the constitution were not unusual as the Sabah government was expected to make more amendments to the state laws in the coming years.
“This is to ensure there are changes, apart from ( laws that have been enacted) being in line with the current situation, which could thus put the state and the state government on the right track,” he told reporters here.
There has been talk that the constitution will be amended to extend the two-term limit of the Yang di-Pertua Negeri.
Meanwhile, in Putrajaya, a non- governmental organisation, Gerakan Kuasa Rakyat Malaysia, said yesterday it had lodged a report with the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission ( MACC) seeking an investigation into the possibility of any element of corruption in the claim that the term of Yang di- Pertua Negeri Tun Juhar Mahiruddin will be extended.
Its pro-tem chairman, Datuk Zulkarnain Mahdar, said Sabah law restricted the period to two terms (of three years each) and that Juhar’s term of office should expire at the end of this year.
He said to reporters that based on the information he received, the special session of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly on Thursday would debate a motion to amend the state law to enable Juhar to extend his term of office.