Kedah has no plans for snap polls, to wait for GE

Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor during a visit to a padi farm in Jerlun yesterday.

ALOR SETAR: Kedah has no plans to call a snap election as the current administration is stable.

Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said it is not wise to waste time or resources on a state election when a parliamentary election would suffice.

“We are ready for a parliamentary election. At the state level, the government has 23 seats and the opposition 13. It’s been plain sailing so far,” he told reporters when presenting his “first 100 days in office” report card at Seri Mentaloon here today.

There are 23 Perikatan Nasional (PN) members in the 36-member Kedah assembly. PAS holds 15 seats, PPBM four and Umno and independents, two each.

He said, however, that in the event the central PN leadership pushed for a dissolution of the state assembly, he would comply with the advice.

Earlier, Sanusi launched the Kedah 2035 Plan with the theme of “Prospering the state and making it liveable”.

The development blueprint will see the 12 districts in the state focusing on industries such as agriculture and bio-industries.

He said the state would also bolster its credentials as the country’s rice bowl by increasing its padi output and pushing for niche plantations such as blackthorn durians and corn.

He also said 300ha of kenaf plantations would be pursued to help the marginalised communities, along with up to 1,000ha of bamboo farms which could yield close to RM14,000 a hectare.

Other salient points of the plan are moving the plastic recycling factories from Sungai Petani to Bukit Selambau, ostensibly due to pollution concerns, and permanently closing the problematic Semeling landfill, which has often caught fire over the years. - FMT