Penang State Legislative Assembly

15th State Legislative AssemblyTypeTypeHistoryFounded11 July 1959; 64 years ago (1959-07-11)LeadershipStructureSeats40
Quorum: 13
Simple majority: 21
Two-thirds majority: 27(As of 13 August 2023^[update])

Government (29)
  PH (27)

•   DAP (19)
•   PKR (7)
•   AMANAH (1)

  BN (2)

•   UMNO (2)

Opposition (11)
  PN (11)

•   PAS (7)
•   BERSATU (4)

Speaker (1)

  PH (non-MLA)CommitteesElectionsPlurality First-past-the-post12 August 2023By 28 October 2028Meeting placePenang State Assembly Building, Light Street, George Town, PenangWebsitedun.penang.gov.my

The Penang State Legislative Assembly is the legislature of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is a unicameral institution, consisting of a total of 40 elected lawmakers representing single-member constituencies throughout Penang. The state legislature, whose members are called State Assemblymen, convenes at the Penang State Assembly Building in Penang's capital city of George Town. The Penang State Executive Council, the executive branch of the Penang state government, is drawn from among the State Assemblymen.

After the 2023 Penang state election and out of the 40 seats, 29 are held by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalitions. Within the PH coalition, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) retains its 19 seats since 2008, the People's Justice Party (PKR) holds 7 seats and the National Trust Party (Amanah) retain just a single seat, while the BN coalition holds 2 seats. The PH and BN coalitions thus command a supermajority in the legislature. Meanwhile, 11 seats are held by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition coalition.

Current composition

Government				Opposition
PH			BN	PN
27			2	11
19	7	1	2	7	4
DAP	PKR	AMANAH	UMNO	PAS	BERSATU

No.	Parliamentary Constituency	No.	State Constituency	Portrait	Member	Coalition (Party)	Post
-	-	-	Non-MLA		Law Choo Kiang	PH (PKR)	Speaker
P041	Kepala Batas	N01	Penaga		Mohd Yusni Mat Piah	PN (PAS)	N/A
		N02	Bertam		Reezal Merican Naina Merican	BN (UMNO)
		N03	Pinang Tunggal		Bukhori Ghazali	PN (PAS)
P042	Tasek Gelugor	N4	Permatang Berangan		Mohd Sobri Salleh	PN (PAS)
		N05	Sungai Dua		Muhammad Fauzi Yusoff	PN (PAS)	Opposition Leader
		N06	Telok Ayer Tawar		Azmi Alang	PN (BERSATU)	N/A
P043	Bagan	N07	Sungai Puyu		Phee Syn Tze	PH (DAP)
		N08	Bagan Jermal		Chee Yeeh Keen	PH (DAP)
		N09	Bagan Dalam		Kumaran Krishnan	PH (DAP)
P044	Permatang Pauh	N10	Seberang Jaya		Izhar Shah Arif Shah	PN (BERSATU)
		N11	Permatang Pasir		Amir Hamzah Abdul Hashim	PN (PAS)
		N12	Penanti		Zulkefli Bakar	PN (BERSATU)
P045	Bukit Mertajam	N13	Berapit		Heng Lee Lee	PH (DAP)
		N14	Machang Bubok		Lee Khai Loon	PH (PKR)
		N15	Padang Lalang		Daniel Gooi Zi Sen	PH (DAP)	EXCO Member
P46	Batu Kawan	N16	Perai		Sundarajoo Somu	PH (DAP)
		N17	Bukit Tengah		Gooi Hsiao Leung	PH (PKR)	N/A
		N18	Bukit Tambun		Goh Choon Aik	PH (PKR)
P047	Nibong Tebal	N19	Jawi		Jason H'ng Mooi Lye	PH (DAP)	EXCO Member
		N20	Sungai Bakap		Nor Zamri Latiff	PN (PAS)	N/A
		N21	Sungai Acheh		Rashidi Zinol	BN (UMNO)	EXCO Member
P048	Bukit Bendera	N22	Tanjong Bunga		Zairil Khir Johari	PH (DAP)
		N23	Air Putih		Lim Guan Eng	PH (DAP)	Former Chief Minister of Penang MP for Bagan
		N24	Kebun Bunga		Lee Boon Heng	PH (PKR)	N/A
		N25	Pulau Tikus		Joshua Woo Sze Zeng	PH (DAP)
P049	Tanjong	N26	Padang Kota		Chow Kon Yeow	PH (DAP)	Chief Minister MP for Batu Kawan
		N27	Pengkalan Kota		Wong Yuee Harng	PH (DAP)	N/A
		N28	Komtar		Teh Lai Heng	PH (DAP)
P050	Jelutong	N29	Datok Keramat		Jagdeep Singh Deo	PH (DAP)	Deputy Chief Minister II
		N30	Sungai Pinang		Lim Siew Khim	PH (DAP)	EXCO Member
		N31	Batu Lancang		Ong Ah Teong	PH (DAP)	N/A
P051	Bukit Gelugor	N32	Seri Delima		Connie Tan Hooi Peng	PH (DAP)
		N33	Air Itam		Joseph Ng Soon Siang	PH (DAP)
		N34	Paya Terubong		Wong Hon Wai	PH (DAP)	EXCO Member
P052	Bayan Baru	N35	Batu Uban		Kumaresan Aramugam	PH (PKR)	N/A
		N36	Pantai Jerejak		Fahmi Zainol	PH (PKR)	EXCO Member
		N37	Batu Maung		Mohamad Abdul Hamid	PH (PKR)	Deputy Chief Minister I
P053	Balik Pulau	N38	Bayan Lepas		Azrul Mahathir Aziz	PH (AMANAH)	Deputy Speaker
		N39	Pulau Betong		Mohamad Shukor Zakariah	PN (PAS)	N/A
		N40	Telok Bahang		Muhamad Kasim	PN (BERSATU)

Seating arrangement

The seating arrangement of the Penang State Legislative Assembly is as follows.^[1]

Role

The Penang State Legislative Assembly's main function is to enact legislation and policies relating to the State List and Joint List as defined in the Federal Constitution. Its members also provide oversight on the state's executive branch of government, ensuring the state departments and agencies enforce the aforementioned legislation.^[2] Debates in the Assembly are presided over by the Speaker.

The leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Assembly is appointed as the Chief Minister by the Tuan Yang Terutama Tun Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Penang. The Chief Minister heads the state's executive, known as the State Executive Council, whose members are also drawn from the Assembly.

Committees

The State Assembly also consists of committees to handle administrative matters. The committees include:^[3]

• Public Accounts Committee
• Committee on Privileges
• House Committee
• Standing Orders Committee
• Constitution Committee

Speakers Roll of Honour

The following is the Speaker of the Penang State Legislative Assembly Roll of Honour, since 1959:^[4]

No.	Speaker	Term start	Term end	Party	Constituency
1	Sulaiman Ahmad	6 January 1959	1 April 1964	Alliance (UMNO)	Alma
		25 April 1964	19 March 1969
2	Harun Sirat	10 May 1969	31 July 1974	Gerakan	Alma
		24 August 1974	16 June 1978	BN (Gerakan)	Bukit Tengah
3	Hassan Md. Noh	8 July 1978	29 March 1982	BN (UMNO)	Penaga
4	Teh Ewe Lim	22 April 1982	19 July 1986	BN (Gerakan)	Datok Keramat
5	Ooi Ean Kwong	3 August 1986	5 October 1990	BN (Gerakan)	Datok Keramat
6	Abdul Rahman Abbas	21 October 1990	4 April 1995	BN (UMNO)	Bertam
7	Yahaya Abdul Hamid	25 April 1995	10 November 1999	BN (UMNO)	Pinang Tunggal
		29 November 1999	2 March 2004
		21 March 2004	12 February 2008		Non-MLA
8	Abdul Halim Hussain	8 March 2008	27 June 2013	PR (PKR)	Non-MLA
9	Law Choo Kiang	28 June 2013	10 April 2018	PH (PKR)	Bukit Tambun
		2 August 2018	28 June 2023		Non-MLA
		29 August 2023	Incumbent

Election pendulum

The 2023 Penang state election witnessed 29 governmental seats and 11 non-governmental seats filled the Penang State Legislative Assembly. The government side has 25 safe seats and 1 fairly safe seats, while the non-government side has 4 safe seats and 3 fairly safe seats.

List of Assemblies

Assembly	Term began	Members	Election	Committee	Majority party/coalition
1st	1959			Wong Pow Nee I	Alliance
2nd	1964			Wong Pow Nee II	Alliance
3rd	1969			Lim Chong Eu I	Gerakan (1969-1973) Barisan Nasional (1973-1974)
4th	1974			Lim Chong Eu II	Barisan Nasional
5th	1978			Lim Chong Eu III	Barisan Nasional
6th	1982			Lim Chong Eu IV	Barisan Nasional
7th	1986			Lim Chong Eu V	Barisan Nasional
8th	1990			Koh Tsu Koon I	Barisan Nasional
9th	1995			Koh Tsu Koon II	Barisan Nasional
10th	1999			Koh Tsu Koon III	Barisan Nasional
11th	2004			Koh Tsu Koon IV	Barisan Nasional
12th	2008			Lim Guan Eng I	Pakatan Rakyat
13th	2013			Lim Guan Eng II	Pakatan Rakyat (2013-2015) Pakatan Harapan (2015-2018)
14th	2018			Chow Kon Yeow I	Pakatan Harapan
15th	2023			Chow Kon Yeow II	Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional

See also

• Penang State Assembly Building
• Penang state government
• Constituencies of Penang
• Constitution of Penang

References

External links

• Penang State Assembly Portal