Muhyiddin asked for seat change in Dewan, says speaker

PETALING JAYA: Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul said Pagoh MP Muhyiddin Yassin wanted to change his seating ahead of the upcoming meeting beginning on Monday.

According to the latest seating arrangements posted on Parliament’s website, Larut MP Hamzah Zainudin will return to the opposition leader’s seat following PAS’s announcement that the former Bersatu deputy president will be reinstated to the position.

Asked whether the changes would also involve Muhyiddin’s seat, Johari confirmed the matter and said it was done at the request of the Bersatu president himself.

“I have received the letter confirming Hamzah as the opposition leader and several changes to MPs’ seating,” he said in a Berita Harian report.

Muhyiddin sat next to Hamzah in Block G when the Dewan Rakyat last convened in March. Hamzah had remained opposition leader at the time, despite being sacked from Bersatu in February at the height of a leadership tussle with Muhyiddin.

For the upcoming meeting, Muhyiddin has been moved eight spots down the front row to Block E next to Alor Setar MP Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden.

Hamzah’s sacking from Bersatu saw his position as opposition leader become a subject of dispute, with PN appointing Kemaman MP Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar to replace him initially.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang later announced that Hamzah would return as the opposition leader, with the backing of the majority of opposition MPs, while Samsuri would remain the PN chairman.

On Thursday, PN chief whip Takiyuddin Hassan wrote in to notify Johari that 61 of the 68 opposition MPs have agreed to make Hamzah the new opposition leader.