Azmin meets Sultan amid Selangor Pakatan crisis

(Malay Mail Online) – Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali met with Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah this morning, amid growing speculation about the state administration’s ability to remain intact after the disintegration of Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

Malay Mail Online understands the meeting was held at the sidelines of a function to officiate the appointments of Selangor Shariah judges at the Istana Kayangan.

“Yes, there was a meeting, but I don’t think it is anything unusual.

“His Highness the Sultan meets with the Selangor Mentri Besar every week on Wednesdays, it’s just that this this week it appears there was a meeting today,” the Sultan’s private secretary Datuk Mohamad Munir Bani told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

When asked whether the meeting was for Azmin to explain the ongoing PR crisis, Mohamad Munir said he did not know.

“It is a private meeting, hence I am not privy to the details,” he explained.

PR as a united coalition currently holds the majority in Selangor with 43 state seats namely with DAP and PAS’ 15 seats each, and PKR’s 13 seats.

Barisan Nasional (BN), on the other hand, has 12 seats in Selangor while former mentri besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim who was sacked from PKR last year is the state’s sole independent assemblyman.

But PR’s majority was thrown into uncertainty when PAS decided during its June 6 muktamar to cut ties with the DAP.

The party’s decision led to the DAP later declaring PR’s death as a coalition.

Without PAS’ numbers, DAP and PKR collectively command 28 seats, a clean half of the state assembly’s 56 seats.

PAS, however, has since insisted that PR still exists.

Last week, PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said Azmin will inform Sultan Sharafuddin that PKR, DAP and PAS will continue to work together as a coalition government that should leave the Selangor government unaffected by PR’s reported demise.

Should the Sultan feel that Azmin no longer has the support of the majority in the Selangor assembly, however, he has the authority to call for a state election.

Last week, PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said her party regretted PAS’ muktamar resolution to cut ties with DAP as well as DAP’s declaration that their three-party partnership was over.

In light of these, she said it only means PR no longer functions formally but hoped the cooperation between the three former allies will continue in Selangor and Penang.