GEORGE TOWN, April 9 — Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced the dissolution of the Penang State Legislative Assembly today.
The Penang lawmaker said the dissolution is effective from April 10 onwards.
“I have met with the Penang Yang diPertua Negri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas at Seri Mutiara this morning and he has approved the dissolution of the Penang State Legislative Assembly this morning,” he said in a press conference at Komtar today.
Lim said the state executive council has also unanimously approved the dissolution of the legislative assembly.
“The letter of dissolution will be sent to the State Legislative Assembly Speaker today for the dissolution tomorrow,” he said.
In his speech, Lim said the state executive council held its last and 215th meeting today since May 5, 2013.
He said the state administration, under Pakatan Harapan (PH), notched 13 unique records for the state that included reducing the state’s debts, recording annual surpluses in the state Budget, disbursing RM412.6 million in its social welfare programmes, annual allocations for religious and vernacular schools and the construction of 25,555 affordable homes.
Lim said all state executive councillors, including himself, will return all the official state cars on Wednesday.
“We are now a caretaker government so we will abide by the rules and any decisions made after tomorrow will be purely for administrative purposes,” he said.
The dissolution of the legislative assembly paved the way for state elections to be held concurrently with the general elections.
There are 40 state seats in Penang with 19 seats held by DAP, 10 by PKR, one by PAS and 10 by Barisan Nasional.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced the dissolution of Parliament last week.
Parliament was dissolved on April 7 paving the way for the 14th general elections.
