KUANTAN, Oct 14 — Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail announced the dissolution of the 14th Pahang state legislative assembly effective today, to allow state elections to be held simultaneously with the 15th general election (GE15 ).

Wan Rosdy said he was granted an audience with the Regent of Pahang Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah to seek consent for the dissolution of the state assembly.

He said that Tengku Hassanal, in accordance with Clause (2) Article 26 Part Two of the Pahang Constitution, has given his consent for the Pahang State Assembly to be dissolved, effective today.

"Today was chosen to allow the tabling and debate on the state Budget 2023 to be completed first, thus obtaining approval to be implemented next year,” he said.

He said this at a special press conference at Wisma Sri Pahang here today which was also attended by state secretary Datuk Seri Dr Sallehuddin Ishak and all members of the state executive council.

He added that Pahang's decision to participate in GE15 was made for a number of reasons, especially to avoid the election process being repeated in a short period of time because the state election has to be held less than a year from now.

"Elections that are conducted simultaneously are able to save costs in various aspects, such as the management and operation of the elections. In addition, the start and end of the terms in parallel between the state and federal governments will facilitate various administrative affairs.

"This will allow the state government to focus on the state's management and development agenda more effectively. Therefore, the state government believes there is a need to also participate in GE15,” he said.

With the dissolution, Wan Rosdy expressed his appreciation to the people of Pahang who put their trust in him and the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to govern the state for more than four years.

He also hopes that this term’s excellent performance and achievements as well as the interesting agenda that was presented in the budget approved yesterday will be considered by all parties to retain BN’s mandate as Pahang’s administrator.

Citing an example of Barisan Nasional's (BN) achievement, Wan Rosdy said the revenue collection exceeded RM1 billion, the investment brought in reached RM20.5 billion and the state's debt was successfully reduced by 71 per cent from RM3.31 billion to RM952 million.

"Insya-Allah, if the mandate continues to be given to us in GE15, which will be held soon, I will ensure that BN will do a much better job than what we have done this term,” he said.

Wan Rosdy also expressed his gratitude to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and Tengku Hassanal who consented to appoint him as the 15th Menteri Besar of Pahang.

In the last general election, BN secured 25 out of 42 state seats, while Pakatan Harapan (nine) and PAS (eight). — Bernama