KLANG, June 19 — Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah today consented to the dissolution of the Selangor State Assembly effective Friday (June 23) to pave the way for state elections to be held.

This was announced by the Sultan of Selangor’s private secretary Datuk Mohamad Munir Bani at a ceremony on the dissolution of the state assembly at Balai Dewan Diraja, Istana Alam Shah here today.

His Royal Highness also signed the proclamation on the dissolution of the state assembly.

Earlier, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari had an audience with the Sultan of Selangor to seek His Royal Highness’ consent to dissolve the state assembly.

Also present at the ceremony was Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.

Also in attendance were State Secretary Datuk Haris Kasim, Selangor State Assembly Speaker Ng Suee Lim and members of the Dewan Diraja Selangor.

Selangor is among three states under Pakatan Harapan (PH) which will hold their state elections this year, with the other two being Penang and Negeri Sembilan, which have announced that they will dissolve their state assemblies on June 28 and 30 respectively.

Apart from this, three states ruled by Perikatan Nasional (PN) will also hold their state polls this year, namely Kelantan, which will dissolve its state assembly on June 22 and Kedah (June 28), while Terengganu has yet to announce its dissolution date.

With the consent given by Sultan Sharafuddin, the Selangor State Assembly will be dissolved just two days before the expiry of its term on June 25.

The first meeting of the Selangor State Assembly after the 14th general election (GE14) of May 9, 2018 was held on June 26, 2018.

Selangor PH, which was then led by Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, retained power in GE14 with a two-thirds majority, winning 51 of the 56 state seats.

Mohamed Azmin was sworn in as Menteri Besar for a second term on May 11, 2018, before resigning to take up the post of Economic Affairs Minister in the Cabinet of then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

PH then picked Amirudin, who was state Empowerment, Young Generation and Sports, Entrepreneur Development, Rural Development and Traditional Village Committee chairman, as the 16th Selangor Menteri Besar and he was sworn in on June 19, 2018.

During the current term of the state assembly, Selangor saw four by-elections, namely for the Sungai Kandis, Balakong, Seri Setia and Semenyih seats due to the deaths of the state assemblymen from PH.

PH retained three of the seats but lost Semenyih to Barisan Nasional (BN).

In the Selangor State Assembly, PH has 40 seats (PKR-19, DAP-15, Amanah-six); BN (five); Bersatu (four); Parti Bangsa Malaysia (two); while PAS, Pejuang and Warisan have one each and there is an independent assemblyman.

One seat, Batang Kali, has been declared vacant after its assemblyman failed to attend sittings for more than six months. — Bernama