Dissolving Parliament talk dissolves

PM Najib has left for London, after which he is heading to the US. This has doused speculations that he is supposed dissolve Parliament today.

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s departure for a two-day working visit to London late last night has doused speculations that Parliament will be dissolved today to make way for the 13th general election.

The Barisan Nasional chief and wife Rosmah Mansor left the country around 11.15pm to attend a reception on the conferment of the Royal Charter on the Oxford Centre for Islamic studies by Queen Elizabeth II.

Many were expecting Najib to cancel the trip and dissolve parliament today especially after a rousing celebration at Umno’s 66th anniversary at the Bukit Jalil stadium which was attended by some 100,000 party members.

A local Malay language daily ran a front-page news report yesterday speculating that all important polls would be held mid-next month and that parliament would be dissolved today after Najib meets the Yang d-Pertuan Agong for consent.

But this was not to be as Najib would be in London for the next two days and is scheduled to fly off to the US on Tuesday night.

He would be on holiday after a week-long trip to the US and was scheduled to return home on May 25. He is also expected to leave for an official visit to the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan on May 28.

Still time for a June polls
However, pundits and political observers state that Najib still has time to call for the polls in June.

A new round of guessing game has started on the date of the next general election with some saying that Najib could dissolve parliament just after the Agong’s birthday celebration which falls on June 2.

The new Dewan Rakyat session is scheduled to begin on June 11 and run up to June 28.

The second mid-term school break starts on May 26 and ends on June 10. Taking this into consideration, Najib would have the first week to dissolve parliament and let the Election Commission set the third weekend of June for polling.

Whatever guessing game played, only Najib knows the date for the polls or does he?