PUTRAJAYA, March 28 – The Election Commission (EC) today received official notification of the automatic dissolution of the Negeri Sembilan state legislative assembly at midnight last night. Negeri Sembilan state election director Afizam Abdullah Sani handed the notification to EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof at the EC headquarters, here.
Abdul Aziz said the law empowered the EC to set the dates for nomination and polling within 60 days of being notified of the dissolution.
“This (setting of the dates) will be decided at a special meeting to be called soon. It is the desire of the EC to hold the (parliamentary and state) elections simultaneously,” he said. The Negeri Sembilan state legislative assembly dissolved automatically after its five-year mandate expired at midnight last night, making national history as the first state legislative assembly to dissolve automatically.
In SEREMBAN, Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly speaker Datuk Razak Mansor said he had written officially to the state EC office notifying it of the dissolution of the assembly. He said that if the EC did not hold the election within 60 days, the caretaker government could be given an additional 30 days with the consent of the Yang Dipertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan.
“If the election cannot be held even during that (additional) period, the Yang Dipertuan Besar will set up a government at his discretion,” he said.
BERNAMA
