PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said under Standing Order 4 (1), it is mandatory for a speaker to be appointed 14 days before Dewan Rakyat proceedings begin.

By right, he added, a speaker should have been chosen by July 2.

This followed a walkout of opposition MPs from the Dewan Rakyat this morning over the appointment of former Court of Appeal judge Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof as the new speaker.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the 14-day standing order had not been followed.

“We are against the way the speaker was appointed. The Dewan Rakyat rules were not followed,” he said at a press conference here.

Umno’s Azalina Othman Said meanwhile said they needed to look at the letter of appointment to see if it was backdated.

MCA’s Wee Ka Siong said if the criteria were not followed, it meant that the government was not following orders.

“We are not against the speaker because the position of the speaker is important, but rules need to be followed,” he said.

Umno’s Annuar Musa added that former speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia told him he had checked with Parliament staff after July 2 and was told that no name had been submitted.

“We cannot bend the rules. If they have a problem, suspend and renominate the speaker, and then we continue the sitting again.”

DAP’s Anthony Loke, however, refuted the claim that the speaker’s name was not submitted in time.

“The Dewan Rakyat secretary received the name on July 2,” he told reporters at the Dewan Rakyat lobby.

Khairy stays put as opposition MPs walk out over new speaker