GEORGE TOWN (May 12): Penang DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow has been confirmed as Chief Minister after his predecessor Lim Guan Eng was announced as the Finance Minister in the new cabinet of the Pakatan Harapan government.

A source close to Chow told theedgemarkets.com that he will be sworn in on Monday but said a final decision would be made by the party leadership tomorrow.

“Following Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s appointment of Lim as the finance minister, Chow can now be confirmed as the next CM for Penang. We will wait for the top leadership to make the final announcement soon,” he said, which ended speculation over the next stewardship for Penang.

State Secretary Datuk Seri Farizan Darus said yesterday that the new CM would take his oath before Penang Yang di-Pertua Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas at his official residence at 10am.

In the past year, Chow, 60, has been touted to take over two-termed CM Lim who retained his Bagan Parliamentary and Air Putih state seats by a comfortable majority.

In addition, Lim has several times expressed that Chow would replace him if the latter was sentenced to jail over the bungalow court case that was brought by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The case is ongoing with the next hearing date on May 21.

Chow won both the Tanjung parliamentary and Padang Kota state seats by a majority of 29,599 votes, and 7,808 votes, respectively this general election.

In the DAP-led government, he held the state Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation portfolio for two terms where, among others, he was tasked to handle the RM27 billion Penang Transport Masterplan project.