Assembly dissolves to open up Selangor election battlegrounds

SHAH ALAM - The drum of the Selangor state election was sounded after the State Legislative Assembly was officially dissolved today, two days before the mandate ends on June 25.

Selangor Assembly Speaker Ng Suee Lim has handed the notification letter to Selangor Election Commission director Shafie Taib at Bangunan Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah here this morning to make way for the state election to be held.

It also saw the start of Selangor being administered by the caretaker state government until a new government is formed after the state election.

Selangor followed Kelantan which dissolved its assembly yesterday, to be followed by Penang and Kedah on June 28 and Negeri Sembilan two days later while Terengganu has yet to finalise its date of dissolution even though the current term ends on June 30.

Selangor has 56 state seats and in the 14th general election (GE14), Pakatan Harapan (PH) which comprised Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) won 51 seats with PKR (21), DAP (16), Amanah (eight) and Bersatu (six).

Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pas took four seats and one seat respectively.

During this term, Selangor saw four by-elections held for Sungai Kandis, Balakong, Seri Setia and Semenyih following the demise of PH incumbents.

Three of the seats were retained by PH while BN managed to wrestle the Semenyih seat.

Following the Sheraton Move, the PH government in Selangor on March 2020 expelled Bersatu from the coalition causing them to lose five seats under Bersatu since GE14.

Apart from that, three assemblymen were expelled from PKR and they are Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali (Bukit Antarabangsa); Muhammad Hilman Idham (Gombak Setia) and Haniza Mohamed Talha (Ampang Jaya) as well as Sementa assemblyman Dr Daroyah Alwi who left the party to join Bersatu.

Nonetheless, last year, Haniza and Dr Daroyah announced they were joining Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM).

Meanwhile, the number of Bersatu seats shrunk when Kuang assemblyman, Sallehudin Amiruddin left the party to become an independent while Jeram assemblyman Mohd Shaid Rosli and Batang Kali representative Harumaini Omar joined Pejuang.

On February 16, the Batang Kali seat was declared vacant when its incumbent Harumaini, did not attend the Selangor State Assembly meeting for more than six months. However, no by-election was held following the declaration.

The political situation in Selangor became even more interesting when Amanah assemblymen Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar and Ahmad Mustain Othman, the representatives of Meru and Sabak respectively made the shocking move to join PKR which is their coalition partner in PH.

Apart from that, DAP also lost one seat in Selangor when Teratai assemblyman Lai Wai Chong announced leaving the party to join Warisan.

According to political parties, the composition of the Selangor assembly before dissolution comprised 19 representatives from PKR, DAP (15), Amanah (six), BN (five), Bersatu (four), while Pas, Pejuang and Warisan have one seat each with one independent assemblyman and one seat declared vacant. - BERNAMA