Only 8 excos will be sworn in on Tuesday, says Azizan

February 26, 2012

ALOR SETAR, Feb 26 — Only eight Kedah state executive councillors (excos) will be sworn in for the 2012 term on Tuesday as compared to 10 slated earlier, Bernama Online reported the Kedah mentri besar as saying today.

Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak (picture) said there would be no new faces in the line-up for Tuesday and that two more excos will be appointed in the near future who may not be current excos.

He added that although the list has been finalised and submitted to the Kedah Sultan, there is an overlap between the incoming and outgoing excos, who will only be completing their terms on March 7. As a result, all 10 excos cannot be sworn in at the same time on February 28.

In an apparent reference to rumours that two current excos had declined to accept their re-appointments, Azizan said every exco has the right to decline his appointment, noting that the state government had no problem filling the vacancies anyway as many assemblymen had offered to take up the posts.

The excos in question are said to be Kedah PAS deputy commissioner I, Datuk Phahrolrazi Zawawi, and Kedah PAS deputy commissioner II, Datuk Dr Ismail Salleh, who are the excos for Housing, Local Government, Works, Utilities and Energy and Health, Non-governmental Organisations, Human Capital Development, Science and Innovation and Information and Communications Technology respectively.

It has been speculated that the two men are unhappy about Azizan’s leadership in relation to various issues that have affected his administration in recent years.