PN state gov'ts won't stop at Kedah, says BN sec-gen

Efforts to increase the number of state government in the hands of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration are not going to slow down following the change in Kedah, says Barisan Nasional secretary-general Annuar Musa.

Indeed, he said the drive to form more state governments would continue and he strongly welcomed changes similar to the one witnessed at the federal level in which a spate of defections from the Pakatan Harapan coalition led to a new administration under Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

"This is part of the PN's goal of strengthening and stabilising politics. And it will not stop at Kedah.

"There will probably be another one. If there are one or two more states that which to follow in the footsteps of Kedah, we strongly welcome them to switch to a PN government," " he told the media when met after giving a donation to religious leaders at the mosque in his Ketereh parliamentary constituency today.

He said that for newly-formed PN state governments in Johor, Malacca and Perak, now it's time for them to work and the time for politics is over.

Earlier, Malaysiakini reported that Mukhriz Mahathir had resigned as Kedah menteri besar after losing support of a majority of state assemblypersons.

Mukhriz resigned after PN announced it had 23 of the 36 assembly seats and could form a new state government.

This followed the defections of two PKR assemblypersons Dr Robert Ling Kui Ee (Sidam) and Azman Nasrudin (Lunas) who left the party and declared their support for PN. The move was followed by four members of Mukhriz's own Bersatu party.

"We thank Mukhriz for 23 months of service. Everyone has tried - Mukhriz tried his own way, but it may not have worked," said Annuar.

"So now it is PN's turn to try, we are trying our way. If we do not succeed, the people will remove us. We should learn the lesson of governments that have been removed," he added. - Mkini