Pakatan takeover in Terengganu won’t solve impasse, says Kit Siang

(Malay Mail Online) – Pakatan Rakyat (PR) taking over the Terengganu administration is not an effective solution to the “constitutional impasse” arising from the defections of three Umno representatives yesterday, said DAP’s Lim Kit Siang.

The DAP national advisor pointed out that such a scenario would mean that the informal pact would rule the state with just 15 seats from the 32-seat assembly, effectively making it a minority government.

Lim added that another option for the newly-appointed Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman to concede he no longer commanded the confidence of the majority was similarly untenable, alluding to the unlikely possibility of a unity government.

“As there is no effective majority in the first two scenarios, the best way to resolve the constitutional impasse in Terengganu caused by the resignation of the three Umno assemblymen from Umno is to have new state general elections,” Lim said

Former mentri besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said’s resignation from Umno was announced after Seberang Takir assemblyman Ahmad Razif was sworn in last night as the new Terengganu mentri besar.

Since then, Aji representative Ghazali Taib and Bukit Besi assemblyman Roslee Daud have followed suit, leaving BN with just 14 state seats.

Ahmad, who was reappointed Terengganu mentri besar for a second term on May 9 last year, was forced to step down from office mid-term, reportedly due to the BN’s weakest polls performance in a decade.

BN barely kept the state government with 17 state seats against Pakatan Rakyat’s 15 seats in Election 2013.