The bill proposed by Chief Minister Shafie Apdal was passed with 45 votes, which exceeds the two-third majority required to amend the constitution.
Five people were absent from today’s meeting: Sungai Sibuga assemblyman Musa Aman, Hajiji Noor (Sulaman), Masidi Manjun (Karanaan), Bobbey Suan (Nabawan) and Ariffin Arif (Membakut)
The amendment will see Article 2(3) of the Sabah constitution deleted.
The clause in question reads: “A person shall not hold office as the Yang di-Pertua Negeri for more than two terms, either continuously or otherwise.”
It was added into the Sabah constitution in 1987 by the state government under Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), to give other races opportunities to occupy the seat and to celebrate Sabah’s diversity.
In his speech, Shafie said the amendment was made to restore the original wording under Annex B of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which does not impose limits on the governor’s term.
He said it was the first of many which Warisan would make to the Sabah constitution to restore all the wordings of MA63.
“I have set up a committee to review the constitution and the ordinances, which is led by a former state attorney-general.
“Sabah has many interests that we need to defend, not just our sovereignty but also the rights of Sabah and its people.
“For now, we need to make this change because the governor is an important symbol for us, and keeping the term limit will downgrade the prestige of the institution,” he said.
The current governor, Juhar Mahiruddin, has held the post since Jan 1, 2011. His tenure was supposed to end this year with a new governor taking his place on Jan 1, 2019.
Juhar had allowed Shafie to be sworn in as chief minister on May 12, just two days after swearing in Musa Aman to the post.
He also lodged a police report against Musa for alleged criminal intimidation.
Addressing concerns that the amendment was done to reward Juhar for his role in the two-chief minister fiasco, Shafie said he was aware of the talk but assured that he and Juhar had held no such discussion.
A total of 10 assemblymen debated the bill: four from the opposition and five from the government.