MELAKA, Nov 26 — Eleven assemblymen today took their oaths of office as members of the Melaka State Executive Council (exco) at Dewan Seri Negeri in Ayer Keroh.

The swearing-in ceremony and the taking of oath of loyalty and secrecy were carried out before Melaka Yang Dipertua Negeri, Tun Mohd Ali Mohd Rustam.

Leading the list at the ceremony which started at 3.22pm was Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusof, who was previously the Speaker of the Melaka State Assembly, as the new Industry, Investment and Entrepreneur Development Committee chairman.

It was followed by Datuk Muhammad Jailani Khamis as Tourism, Heritage and Culture Committee chairman; Datuk Rahmad Mariman (Works, Transport, Public Facilities, Infrastructure and Flood Management) and Datuk Zaidi Atan (Housing, Local Government and Environment).

Also sworn in were Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman (Rural Development, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry); VP Shanmugam (Youth Development, Sports and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)) and Datuk Kalsom Nordin (Women’s Affairs, Family Development and Welfare).

Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh (Health and Anti-Drug); Datuk Rais Yasin (Education and Technology), and Ngwe Hee Sem (Unity, Community Relations, Human Resource and Consumer Affairs) also took the oath at the ceremony.

These eleven exco members were sworn in to form the state government for the 15th term following the Barisan Nasional (BN) victory in the Melaka polls on November 20.

Sulaiman, who was also present today, was sworn in as chief minister in the early morning of  November 21, just hours after BN was announced to have won 21 of the 28 seats contested.

He was also appointed Economic Planning, Finance, Land Development, Government-linked Companies (GLCs) and Religious Affairs Committee chairman. — Bernama