Raja Nazrin Shah can decide on dissolution

ARCHIVES 2009

By Dreadnought On May 11, 2009

By Jacqueline Ann Surin

(The Nut Graph) PETALING JAYA, 11 May 2009: The Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah, is empowered by the Perak constitution to decide on a request by the menteri besar to dissolve the state assembly.

Constitutional lawyer Tommy Thomas said that Article 15 under Part II of the state constitution stipulated that the regent could be the acting sovereign in the event that the sultan was away for more than 30 days.

"We can safely assume that Sultan Azlan Shah is away, and that Raja Nazrin Shah is acting sovereign when he (Raja Nazrin) opened the state assembly last Thursday (7 May)," Thomas said in a phone interview today.

Thomas served as legal counsel for embattled Speaker V Sivakumar in the suit brought against him by assemblypersons Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang), Capt (R) Mohd Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) and Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang).

Thomas added that under Article 17 of the constitution, the regent, when acting as the sovereign, is empowered to exercise all the prerogatives and perform all the duties of the sovereign.