SHAH ALAM, June 23 — The drum of the Selangor state election was sounded after the state legislative assembly was officially dissolved today, two days before the mandate ends on June 25.
State assembly Speaker Ng Suee Lim has handed the notification letter to Selangor Election Commission director Shafie Taib at Bangunan Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah here this morning to make way for the state election to be held.
It also saw the start of Selangor being administered by the caretaker state government until a new government is formed after the state election.
Selangor followed Kelantan which dissolved its assembly yesterday, to be followed by Penang and Kedah on June 28 and Negeri Sembilan two days later, while Terengganu has yet to finalise its date of dissolution even though the current term ends on June 30.
In the 14th general election (GE14), Pakatan Harapan (Harapan), which comprised Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan), DAP, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), won 51 of the 56 seats in Selangor, with Keadilan winning 21, DAP (16), Amanah (eight) and Bersatu (six).
Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS won four and one seat respectively.
During this term, Selangor saw four by-elections in Sungai Kandis, Balakong, Seri Setia and Semenyih following the demise of Harapan incumbents.
Three of the seats were retained by Harapan while BN managed to wrestle the Semenyih seat.
Following the Sheraton Move, the Harapan government in Selangor, on March 2020, expelled Bersatu from the coalition, causing them to lose five seats belonging to the party.
Apart from that, three assemblymen were expelled from Keadilan, namely Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali (Bukit Antarabangsa); Muhammad Hilman Idham (Gombak Setia) and Haniza Mohamed Talha (Ampang Jaya). Sementa assemblyman Dr Daroyah Alwi also left the party to join Bersatu.
Nonetheless, last year, Haniza and Dr Daroyah announced they were joining Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM).
Meanwhile, the number of Bersatu seats shrunk when Kuang assemblyman Sallehudin Amiruddin left the party to become an independent, while Jeram assemblyman Mohd Shaid Rosli and Batang Kali representative Harumaini Omar joined Pejuang.
On February 16, the Batang Kali seat was declared vacant when its incumbent Harumaini did not attend the Selangor State Assembly meeting for more than six months. However, no by-election was held following the declaration.
The political situation in Selangor became even more interesting when Amanah assemblymen Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar and Ahmad Mustain Othman, the representatives of Meru and Sabak respectively, made the shocking move to join Keadilan, their coalition partner in Harapan.
Apart from that, DAP also lost one seat in Selangor when Teratai assemblyman Lai Wai Chong announced leaving the party to join Warisan.
According to breakdown based on political parties, the composition of the Selangor assembly right before the dissolution comprised 19 representatives from Keadilan, DAP (15), Amanah (six), BN (five) and Bersatu (four), while PAS, Pejuang and Warisan have one seat each.
There is also one independent assemblyman while one seat was declared vacant.
— Bernama
