PENANG STILL WAITING
Democratic Action Party (DAP) secretary-general Anthony Loke said on Tuesday that the Penang state chapter of his party has asked for a review of the decision by Pakatan Harapan (PH) against dissolving the state assembly.
“There are views from many people, especially in Penang, for the elections to be held at the same time,” he was quoted as saying by local media.
At the same time, states under PH including Selangor and Negeri Sembilan have yet to make a firm decision on whether to dissolve the state assemblies.
On Friday, the chairman of DAP’s national legal bureau, Ramkarpal Singh urged the coalition to consider its decision of having state elections separately from the national polls.
He said that there is “nothing unprincipled” in holding concurrent elections now as it is certainly in the interests of people.
Mr Ramkarpal also claimed that the people in Penang do not want separate elections. He said that their wish “to hold state and parliament elections concurrently is overwhelming”.
“I wish to appeal to the PH leadership to seriously consider holding simultaneous parliament and state elections now in all its states as we will be stronger facing the opposition now,” he said in a statement.
Selangor chief minister Amirudin Shari reportedly said on Tuesday that Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah wanted the current PH state government to complete its full term.
Negeri Sembilan chief minister Aminuddin Harun also reportedly said on Tuesday that there are no plans to dissolve the assembly, although PH’s presidential council would have the final say on the matter.
On Thursday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang confirmed in a statement that the three state assemblies led by his party – Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan will not be dissolved.
He said the party has decided to strengthen its ties with Perikatan Nasional (PN) in the upcoming general election.
“We will strengthen our collaboration with PN for the coming polls to unite the ummah (Muslims),” he said.
PAS is a component party of PN.
With the exception of Sarawak, national and state-level elections have usually been held concurrently in Malaysia.
For now, the state assemblies of Sabah, Sarawak, Johor and Melaka are out of the equation as polls were held recently.
The Election Commission will have a special meeting on Oct 20 to discuss and set important dates for the 15th General Election (GE15) and the state by-election for Bugaya in Sabah.