GEORGE TOWN, Oct 6 — The Penang state government said today it will follow Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) top leadership’s decision to not dissolve the state assembly if the 15th General Election (GE15) is called soon.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the state will abide by the decision announced by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday.
"Penang has related its decision to the PH leadership yesterday, the same as the two other states,” he said in a press conference at his office today.
Yesterday, Anwar said Pakatan Harapan-led states — Penang, Selangor and Negri Sembilan — will not be holding their state polls concurrently with GE15 if it is held soon.
The PH chairman said the states will not be dissolving their state assemblies due to the year-end floods.
He announced this after discussion between Pakatan’s presidential council and the mentris besar and chief ministers of the three states.
When asked to comment on Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s accusation that PH was looking to delay the polls due to a its poor showing in the past by-elections, Chow said the decision will only be known if GE15 is held.
Meanwhile, on the tabling of Budget 2023 tomorrow, Chow said the state had already submitted applications for 126 projects valued at RM17.72 billion.
"Of the 126 projects, we only require RM2.9 billion to start the projects in 2023 as some projects will take two to three years to implement,” he said.
He said the state had also submitted an additional 23 projects valued at RM14.03 billion to the Finance Ministry upon request from the finance minister.
"We always welcome federal projects to be implemented in Penang,” he said.
Among the projects Penang had requested funding for include the Pulau Aman development plan, infrastructure plan for Penang South Reclamation, LRT, green connector and the north seafront plan and a RM36 million facelift for Dewan Sri Pinang.
