THE first meeting of the first session of the 14th Parliament on July 16 will witness the historic presence of 90 new MPs.

Dewan Rakyat secretary Rosmee Hamzah said this was the largest number of MPs ever recorded in the history of the Malaysian parliament.

“It will be a historic day. The parliamentary landscape this time around is very different because we will see very elderly as well as young parliamentarians, such as P. Prabakaran (Batu MP), who is still a student,” he said after a briefing on the 14th Parliament at the Dewan Rakyat in Kuala Lumpur today.

He said today’s briefing was important, especially for newly appointed members to understand the rules of the House of Representatives, such as on the oral question-and-answer sessions and tabling of a bill.

He said the 14th Parliament sitting scheduled for 20 days would also see the appearance of 11 former MPs  and 121 MPs from the 13th parliament, who were re-elected in the 14th general election.

Rosmee said the MPs were also briefed on the preparations for the first meeting on July 16, which will see the appointment of the new Dewan Rakyat speaker followed by a swearing-in ceremony of the 222 MPs.

On the candidate for the Dewan Rakyat speaker post, Rosmee said so far, he had not received a motion from the government. The proposal for the nomination must be submitted within 14 days before the parliament sitting, or next Monday.

He said the seating arrangement for the MPs in the house would also be determined after the appointment of all cabinet ministers and deputy ministers scheduled for next Monday.

“Thereafter, we will allocate the seats, with the government supporters on the right and the opposition representatives on the left,” he said.

He said the parliamentary members must submit questions for the oral question-and-answer    sessions by June 29. – Bernama, June 26, 2018.