ALOR STAR, 2 Sept 2009: Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak today gave his assurance that Article 52 of the state constitution would not be used to suspend Kota Siputeh assemblyperson Datuk Abu Hassan of the Barisan Nasional (BN).
“Using Article 52 would only complicate things further. From the very beginning, we did not want to resort to it because we wanted the Election Commission (EC) to make a decision on his status.
“Based on the experience in Perak, ultimately it is the EC that decides whether a seat is vacant or not,” said Azizan. He was asked what action the state government planned to take following the EC’s declaration yesterday that Abu Hassan would not lose his seat as an elected state representative.
However, Azizan said the state government planned to go to the courts to pursue the matter further.
“We say he is disqualified (to be an assemblyperson) on technical grounds but the EC is also citing technical grounds for him to remain as Kota Siputeh assembly[person]. It’s better for a third party like the courts to decide on this,” Azizan said.
Article 52 of the Kedah constitution states that the speaker can use his or her powers to sack an assemblyperson for violating the constitution because of non-attendance of assembly sittings.
Kedah Speaker, Datuk Dr Abdul Isa Ismail, had written to the EC on 17 Aug asking it to determine the status of Abu Hassan, who failed to attend two sittings of the assembly.
Abu Hassan has cited ill-health for not being present. — Bernama
