Nine rulers to elect 17th Agong today

KUALA LUMPUR - The Conference of Rulers will convene a special meeting today to elect the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

The special meeting, which is set to start at 10am at Istana Negara, will see nine Malay Rulers casting their votes to elect not just a new Yang di-Pertuan Agong, but also a new Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

The special meeting is called as Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s reign as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong will come to an end on Jan 30 next year.

Al-Sultan Abdullah ascended the federal throne on Jan 31, 2019, after being elected to hold the office of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong at the Conference of Rulers’ special meeting on Jan 24 of the same year.

According to Section 2, Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Federal Constitution, the Conference of Rulers shall offer the office of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to the Ruler qualified for election, whose state is first on the election list.

If the Ruler concerned turns down the offer, the Conference of Rulers can offer the office to the Ruler of the next state on the election list and so on until the Ruler accepts the offer.

The election of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is based on a rotation basis agreed upon by all the nine Malay Rulers.

The first cycle of the rotation, from 1957 (when the office of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was established) to 1994, saw Negri Sembilan at the top of the election list, followed by Selangor, Perlis, Terengganu, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Johor and Perak.

Malaysia is one of the 43 countries in the world that practice a system of constitutional monarchy and the only country that practices a rotation system among the nine Malay rulers. - BERNAMA