FORMER Court of Appeal judge Mohamad Ariff Yusof is the latest name to be thrown in the hat for the post of Dewan Rakyat speaker.

This comes after several candidates, including Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul, were rejected.

Ariff, when contacted today, said it is too early to say he is a sure bet for the post.

“There are rumours. It is too early too tell,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

However, he did not deny that he has been approached for the Parliament job.

“(But) no, I have not been formally approached.”

Ariff is a graduate of the University of London (London School of Economics), and began his career in 1974 as a lecturer at the Universiti of Malaya Law Faculty.

He went into private practice in 1985.

He became a judicial commissioner at the High Court of Malaya in 2008, and later, a high court judge.

He then became a Court of Appeal judge in 2012, and retired three years later.

Johari, who had been the front-runner for the speaker’s post following a Pakatan Harapan meeting on Monday, was today ruled out after it was revealed that he must resign as Gurun assemblyman if he were to take the Parliament job.

Lawyers for Liberty adviser N. Surendran said by virtue of Article 57(4) of the federal constitution, an assemblyman who is elected as Dewan Rakyat speaker must “resign from the assembly before exercising the functions of his office”.

Johari said he has told PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail that he will forego the speaker’s post in order to serve his constituents.

Former information minister Rais Yatim, and DAP veteran and Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang are among those touted for the speaker’s post. – July 11, 2018.