NO NEED TO CHANGE M'SIAN PM SELECTION PROCESS

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 (Bernama) -- There is no need to change the method of selecting the Malaysian prime minister, the Lower House of Parliament was told Wednesday.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul
Aziz said the present system had ensured peace, progress and political stability
for the past 50 years.

"Let me remind you that the selection system is enshrined in the (federal)
constitution and not through executive decision.

"As such, the decision whether to change the system lies with Parliament,"
he said.

He was responding to a question from Gobind Singh Deo, an opposition MP who
wanted to know whether the government would remove the system and replace it
with that of the United States' presidential election.

Mohamed Nazri said Malaysia practised parliamentary democracy with
constitutional monarchy based on the Westminster model in the United Kingdom.

"According to the system, the prime minister must be a member of
Parliament, who according to the King leads a majority of members in the
House.

"As such, since the independence, Malaysia (then Malaya) has been led by
a prime minister, who led the Alliance (later National Front or Barisan
Nasional).

Barisan Nasional (Malay for National Front; commonly abbreviated as BN) is
a major political coalition in Malaysia. Formed in 1973 as the successor to the
Alliance, it has been Malaysia's ruling political party since independence.

"This is different from the American system where the people go to the
polls to vote for the president every four years," he said.

He said this was different from the general election in Malaysia where the
people knew they did not vote directly for the prime minister.

-- BERNAMA