Hold elections after March, says Muhyiddin

 

Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin said there are more urgent and important matters at the moment.

PETALING JAYA: Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin has proposed that Parliament be dissolved after March to allow the next general election to be held after the flood season.

Muhyiddin said PN remained firm on its stance that it does not want the elections to be held in the near future because there were “more urgent and important matters at the moment”.

Speaking to reporters after a Bersatu division meeting, he said: “Let’s say after the third month (March 2023) when the situation has calmed down… the situation has returned to normal, then we hold the general election.

“After the floods are over, dissolve Parliament in April, May or June,” Bernama quoted him as saying.

Muhyiddin, who is also president of Bersatu, said that Parliament’s current term had not ended and there were still a few months left. (Parliament’s term ends in July next year, and the elections must be held by mid-September at the latest.)

Muhyiddin said if a general election is held this year, some states may not agree to dissolve their legislative assemblies for simultaneous state and federal elections.

The Election Commission would have to bear additional costs of about RM2 billion should separate elections for state assemblies are held.

Muhyiddin, who is MP for Pagoh, had been asked for his comments on a possible general election date, following Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s meeting with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Thursday.

Government leaders have said there was no discussion of the general election at the audience. - FMT