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 the nine Malay rulers casting their votes to elect not just a new Agong, but also the king’s deputy.
The special meeting is called as Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah’s reign as the 16th Agong will come to an end on January 30 next year.
Al-Sultan Abdullah ascended the federal throne on January 31, 2019, after being elected to hold the office at the Conference of Rulers’ special meeting on January 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 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 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 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 with a system of constitutional monarchy and the only country that practises a rotation system among its state rulers. – October 27, 2023