Pakatan will win big in Perak, says DAP leader

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will win at least 40 of the 59 state seats in Perak in Election 2013, Perak DAP deputy chairman V. Sivakumar predicted today in Harakah Daily.

“This big win is necessary to ensure the well-being and position of the new elected government,” Sivakumar (picture)said in the PAS-backed online news site.

“Perak’s PR leaders are really confident that the people of Perak will give us a larger mandate in the next general election.”

The state is still reeling from the constitutional crisis in 2009 when three assemblymen from PR declared themselves independent, prompting a new state government to be formed by Barisan Nasional (BN).

Sivakumar claimed that BN’s decision to form a new “illegal” government was a mistake since it had betrayed the people’s choice by breaking every single available law.

“On March 8, 2008, the people of Perak had given the mandate to PAS, PKR and DAP to rule Perak. The people’s decision must be respected by all parties,” he said.

The Tronoh assemblyman also chided Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was then the Perak Umno chief, for assuming that the people will forget the takeover by BN which had caused great anger among them.

According to Sivakumar, the people could compare the four-year rule of BN after the power grab, and the short 11-month rule of PR, and they cannot wait to cast their votes after Parliament and the Perak state assembly are dissolved in the upcoming months. Sivakumar pointed out that in recent years, 68,000 acres of land in Perak have been gifted to BN cronies with low premiums, proving that the power grab was just a plot to amass riches in the state.

In Election 2008, PR won Perak by a slim majority, winning 32 assembly seats compared to BN’s 27. Later, one state assemblyman re-defected to BN while three PR assemblymen declared themselves independent and pledged their allegiance to BN.

Elected Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin then asked the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah to dissolve the state assembly, but the Sultan told Nizar and his exco to resign instead.

Umno’s Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir was then asked by the Sultan to form the next government, and was sworn in on February 6, 2009.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled on May 2009 that the takeover was “illegal”, but the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal on February 2010.