UPDATE: Pahang’s Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah Sultan Ahmad Shah Al-Musta’in Billah has been named as the 16th Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.
It was announced earlier today that his five year tenure as Agong will start from January 31.
A special meeting of the Conference of Rulers took place this morning at Istana Negara (the National Palace) to decide the fate of who would be named Malaysia’s 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, along with the deputy, Timbalan Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
The Sultan of Terengganu, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, chaired the meeting that began at 11:15am this morning.
Eight of Malaysia’s nine Sultan rulers were in attendance, with the previous Agong, Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan not resent.
He resigned from his duty as the 15th Yang di-Pertuan Agong on January 6 following his marriage to a Russian beauty queen, to much public surprise. It was the first abdication by an Agong in Malaysia’s modern history.
His replacement had accurately been predicted to be Sultan Abdullah of Pahang state, a keen athlete who holds a string of positions on sporting bodies, including on the council of world football governing body FIFA.
Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement where the national throne changes hands every five years between rulers of the country’s nine states headed by Islamic royalty.
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