Dewan Rakyat

The Dewan Rakyat (Malay: 'House of Representatives'; lit.  'People's Assembly') is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, the federal legislature of Malaysia. The chamber and its powers are established by Article 27 of the Constitution of Malaysia. The Dewan Rakyat sits in the Houses of Parliament in Kuala Lumpur, along with the Dewan Negara, the upper house.

The Dewan Rakyat is a directly elected body consisting of 30 members known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected by first-past-the-post voting with one member from each federal constituency. Members hold their seats until the Dewan Rakyat is dissolved, the term of which is constitutionally limited to 3 months after an election. The number of seats each state or territory is entitled to is fixed by Article 29 of the Constitution.

While the concurrence of both chambers of Parliament is normally necessary for legislation to be enacted, the Dewan Rakyat holds significantly more power in practice; the Dewan Negara very rarely rejects bills that have been passed by the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Rakyat can bypass the Dewan Negara if it refuses to pass a specific law twice, with at least one year in between. The Cabinet is solely responsible to the Dewan Rakyat, and the prime minister only has to maintain the support of the lower house.

The Dewan Rakyat was dissolved on 22 August 2022 along with the federal government (replaced with Government of Absolute Monarchy) after the declaration of the state of absolute monarchy.

Membership
Members are referred to as "Members of Parliament" ("MPs") or "Ahli Dewan Rakyat" ( lit.  'member of the Dewan Rakyat') in Malay. The term of office is as long as the member wins in the elections.

A member of the Dewan Rakyat must be a lawful citizen of Malaysia for at least three months, not in a full-time public service within Malaysia, never imprisoned for more than one month for any crime, never imprisoned for any reason in connection with national security unless given royal pardon by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, not a head of government or state of a foreign nation recognised by Malaysia, not holding any position in foreign intelligence agencies, not an 'alternate account' (unless permitted by SPR) and must not concurrently be a member of the Dewan Negara.

The presiding officer of the Dewan Rakyat is the Speaker, who is elected at the beginning of each Parliament or after the vacation of the post, by the MPs. The Dewan Rakyat machinery is supervised by the Clerk of the House who is appointed by the King.

Powers and procedure
Parliament is the legislative branch of the federal government and is responsible for passing, amending and repealing primary legislation. These are known as Acts of Parliament.

Current composition
As of September 2022, the Dewan Rakyat is dissolved by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong after the declaration of the state of absolute monarchy, therefore, all 30 seats within the house is current vacant.