Kedah State Legislative Assembly Opposition leader Datuk Johari Abdul has vacated his Gurun state seat, fuelling rumours that he would be appointed as the Dewan Rakyat speaker to fill the vacancy left by Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun.
The former three-term Sungai Petani member of parliament said he has submitted a letter over the matter to the Kedah State Legislative Assembly speaker Datuk Johari Bulat on Dec 13.
Johari, a long-term loyalist of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, made the announcement in a two-minute video posted on his Facebook page this morning.
He said the content of the letter read: “I, Datuk Johari Abdul hereby informing the speaker that I am vacating N20 Gurun state seat that I represent effective immediately.
He had pulled 10,732 votes in a four-cornered battle against Boey Chin Gan (Barisan Nasional), Muzaini Azizan (Pas) and Independent candidate M. Palaniappan.
In the GE14, Johari had also defended his Sungai Petani parliamentary seat for the third term in a row after defeating three other candidates with 21,569 majority votes.
However, Johari did not defend the seat in the recently-concluded GE15 to make way for his son Taufiq Johari.
Taufiq won the Sungai Petani parliamentary seat in his general election debut, making him the sole Pakatan Harapan MP in Kedah after Perikatan Nasional won the other remaining 14 parliamentary seats in Kedah.
Johari was recently touted as one of the leading contenders for the Dewan Rakyat speaker’s job to fill up vacancy left by Azhar who announced he was vacating the post. – NST ONLINE