The seats of three assemblymen whose PAS memberships were terminated yesterday have been declared vacant, Perlis assembly speaker Rus’sele Eizan announced today.
The seats are Chuping, Bintong and Guar Sanji.
Rus’sele said no by-elections are necessary as the state assembly will automatically dissolve in two years.
However, he said he will write to the Election Commission to request by-elections as there was a “necessity”.
The three affected assemblymen are Saad Seman (Chuping), Anwar Ismail (Bintong) and Ridzuan Hashim (Guar Sanji).
They allegedly joined five Bersatu assemblymen in submitting statutory declarations to the Raja of Perlis, stating that they had withdrawn support for menteri besar Shukri Ramli.
Pakatan Harapan’s sole Perlis representative, Indera Kayangan assemblyman Gan Ay Ling, is also believed to have submitted a statutory declaration.
The PAS trio had their party memberships terminated yesterday, with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang saying their actions went against the party’s stance.
Perikatan Nasional previously held 14 of the 15 seats in the Perlis assembly: PAS nine, Bersatu five, while PKR held one through Gan.
Losing the support of eight assemblymen would have meant that Shukri had lost his majority support in the state assembly.
However, the vacating of the three seats has thrown the situation into limbo.
As it stands, Shukri would have the support of six PAS assemblymen while Bersatu’s five would be in the opposition.
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