MELAKA: The state Pakatan Harapan (PH) is confident the upcoming Melaka state election will not take place as it holds on to the belief that the Oct 4 dissolution of the state assembly is invalid.
Melaka PH chairman Adly Zahari said the pact's team of lawyers will file a case challenging the dissolution and legitimacy of the formation of the Melaka caretaker government this week.
He stressed PH is not intentionally delaying the polls by filing the case, instead the move was due to the government's delay in gazetting the dissolution of the state assembly.
"Today, the dissolution of the state assembly is expected to be gazetted and once it (the gazette) is received, our team of lawyers will immediately file the case at the High Court in the state this week.
"If we had received the gazette last week, we would certainly have filed the case last week," he said when contacted today.
The former Bukit Katil state assemblyman said the Melaka state election should not be held due to the ongoing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apart from that, the state polls will only cause the political parties financial coffers to be diminished and wasted through expenditure in the election campaign, when the 15th General Election (GE-15) is only a year and a half away, he said.
Adly stressed that the state assembly should not be dissolved and power should be handed over to PH to ensure that the state government administration will run as usual but with different policies from Barisan Nasional (BN).
Though PH is taking a legal approach, the pact is nevertheless making preparations for the state polls.
"While filing the case, we are still making preparations from the aspect, including holding discussions with friends in the PH on seat allocations
"We are also taking into account the views of various quarters on the party that will be joined by four state assemblymen who withdrew their support for (Chief Minister Datuk Seri) Sulaiman (Md Ali) causing BN state government to collapse on Oct 4," he said.
He said it was up to former BN - Sungai Udang assemblyman, Datuk Seri Idris Haron; Datuk Nor Azman Hassan (BN-Kundor Beach); Datuk Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Pengkalan Batu) and Datuk Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu - Telok Mas) to join any party in PH.
Idris, Nor Azman and Noor Effandi have since been sacked by their respective parties for their actions.
On Oct 5, the Election Commission (EC) received an official notification on the dissolution of the 14th Melaka State Assembly.
A state election must be held within 60 days from the date of the dissolution.
The State Assembly was dissolved by Speaker, Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh on Oct 4, after it was agreed by Yang Dipertua Negeri, Tun Mohd Ali Rustam.
Before dissolution, the government bench had 17 representatives – 14 from Umno, two from Bersatu and one independent.
The opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) had 11 representatives – seven from DAP and two each from PKR and Amanah.
The Melaka State Assembly has 28 seats and a simple majority would require a pact to garner 15 seats.
In GE 14, Pakatan Harapan won the most seats in the Melaka State Assembly, forming the first non-BN state government on May 11, 2018.
However, the PH state government lost its majority on March 2, which saw the BN form a new state government until its dissolution on Oct 4.
