ALOR SETAR, April 5 – Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak 
today announced the dissolution of the Kedah legislative assembly to enable state elections to be held. He made the announcement at 10.35 am at the Istana Anak Bukit and said the dissolution was consented to by the Kedah Council of Regency, chaired by Tan Sri Tunku Annuar Sultan Badlishah, during an audience at the palace.
Yesterday, Azizan obtained the consent for dissolution from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, who is the Sultan of Kedah, at an audience at the Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the dissolution of the Dewan Rakyat on April 3 and advised the pertinent state governments to also seek
the dissolution of their respective legislative assemblies for the elections to be held simultaneously.
In the last general election, in 2008, the opposition pact won 21 seats and the Barisan Nasional (BN) 14 seats in the Kedah state assembly. One seat, Bukit Selambau, was won by an independent candidate, V. Arumugam, who later joined Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) of the opposition pact.
Arumugam resigned subsequently and the by-election was won by S. Manikumar of the PKR. Two PKR elected representatives, Tan Wei Su (Bakar Arang) and Mohammad Radzhi Salleh (Lunas), quit the party and became independent.
Kedah has 15 parliamentary seats, of which 11 were won by the opposition pact and four by the BN in the 2008 general election.
Two PKR MPs, Datuk Zulkifli Nordin (Kulim/Bandar Baharu) and N. Gobalakrishnan (Padang Serai), opted to become independent.
BERNAMA
