KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — The chief ministers and menteri besar of the six states that must hold elections this year have tentatively agreed to call these simultaneously in June, said Datuk Seri Amiruddin Shari.
The Selangor Menteri Besar said he had met with his counterparts from Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu to discuss the matter on the sidelines of the Conference of Rulers’ meeting.
“Briefly, we have reached an accord to consider dissolving our respective assemblies in the final two weeks of June 2023.
“This understanding must, of course, be discussed by the respective parties before being presented to Their Highnesses the Sultans, Yang diPertuan Besar and, Tuan Yang Terutama of the states for their consent,” he said today.
When Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the prime minister at the time, called for the 15th general election last year, the six states refused to dissolve their assemblies and hold their state elections at the same time, citing the monsoonal floods that had been predicted.
In the end, only Johor, Pahang, Perak, and Perlis held their state elections concurrently with GE15; Sabah, Sarawak, Melaka and Johor had all conducted their respective polls before then and did not need to hold fresh elections.
Selangor, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu must hold their elections this year as the terms of their legislative assemblies will all expire automatically by the second half of 2023.
GE15 initially resulted in a hung Parliament as no single party or coalition won the minimum of 112 seats needed to form the federal government.
This deadlock was eventually resolved with the formation of a coalition government with Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister.
