Chow Kon Yeow clarifies that Penang has no plans to change its constitution and may review the two-term limit if a 10-year cap is adopted for the prime minister at the federal level.
Chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said Penang has no plans to change its constitution for now, but may review the two-term limit if a 10-year cap is adopted for the prime minister at the federal level .
GEORGE TOWN: Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow has again defended the state’s two-term limit for the chief minister, saying a proposed 10-year cap could create loopholes if an assembly term is cut short. He said this was why Penang chose the two-term rule when it amended its constitution in 2018.
'If a state assembly is dissolved early, a leader may not have served the full five years per term. For example, if someone has only served eight years in total, they have not reached 10 years yet and could still contest again,' he told the state assembly.
Chow was responding to Lee Khai Loon , who asked if Penang would switch from a two-term limit to a 10-year cap, in line with a proposed federal rule for the prime minister. Chow said the 2018 amendment followed months of discussion in the state executive council, with the two-term rule based on the length of a standard assembly cycle.
He said each term runs from the first sitting of the state assembly after an election until it is dissolved. Chow also said the decision was based on experience, where the 2008 to 2013 and 2013 to 2018 assemblies ran close to full terms.
'On that basis, we felt we could use the term as a basis to limit the chief minister’s service to two terms, and not choose 10 years,' he said. Chow said the state government had no plan to amend the constitution for now, but might reconsider if Parliament passes the bill on a 10-year cap at the federal level.
'If the amendment in Parliament had been passed in the last sitting, maybe we could think of aligning it by bringing an amendment to the state constitution to align it with 10 years and not two terms,' he said. Gooi Hsiao Leung , however, said the current wording could raise issues of fairness if a chief minister ends up serving fewer than 10 years due to early dissolution.
Chow said there was no legal issue with Penang completing a full five-year term even if Parliament is dissolved early, but that political factors could affect this. He said in such cases, a term could be shortened to three or four years from five.
Chow Kon Yeow Penang Constitution Two-Term Limit 10-Year Cap Federal Level State Assembly Prime Minister State Executive Council Alignment
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