Aziz Bari: Snap polls in Sabah will trigger Selangor, Penang to act

Both Pakatan Harapan-led states stand a good chance of retaining the states based on current electoral boundaries, says law expert.

(FMT) – A snap election in Sabah will trigger Selangor and Penang to go to the polls early so that Pakatan Harapan (PH) can retain power, law expert Abdul Aziz Bari said.

Aziz said the decision to hold state elections by PH would further depend on the Selangor government’s legal challenge against the Election Commission (EC) on the redelineation exercise.

“If Selangor fails, the PH leadership will prefer to obtain a fresh mandate from the people based on the current electoral boundaries,” he told FMT.

Aziz said this in response to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s statement that no decision had been made yet on calling for a snap election in Sabah.

“We need to look into every aspect before deciding on it but I would like to stress that for now, this is all speculation,” the Umno president told reporters after chairing the party’s Supreme Council meeting last Friday.

FMT understands that although the Sabah state assembly approved an additional 12 seats under the redelineation exercise, it has to be tabled in parliament for approval in the March sitting.

Only then can the EC hold a state election for the expanded 72-state assembly.

Aziz said Selangor and Penang had a better chance of retaining the states in snap polls as the current proposal to redraw electoral boundaries were tilted against them.

It was disclosed in court recently that the EC had proposed 30 Malay predominant seats in Selangor compared with 17 currently, allegedly to favour the Barisan Nasional.

Despite Chinese majority seats going up from five to eight, multi-ethnic seats have been reduced from 34 to 18.

“Also, the opposition will have a better prospect of taking another shot at Putrajaya in a general election should they retain both these states,” Aziz added.

A snap election can be held anytime with the consent of the head of state although the five year term of the Federal and state legislatures expire in the middle of next year.