GEORGE TOWN: The distribution of seats between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) for the Penang state election is 95 per cent resolved.
Penang PH chairman Chow Kon Yeow said negotiations that have been going on since last month are proceeding smoothly and there are still some seats that have not been decided because they are overlapping seats.
“Negotiations for the allocation of seats are already 95 per cent complete and there are a few more seats where there are overlapping requests,“ he told reporters after officiating the Interactive Edutainment Programme at Gleneagles Hospital here today.
Chow who is also Penang Chief Minister said PH-BN will hold the third state election seat negotiation meeting in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.
“I believe tomorrow will be the third and final negotiation...if there is no decision, we may have to hand it over to the Presidential Council. We are meeting in Kuala Lumpur because the negotiations have been brought to the central level,“ he said.
Meanwhile, when asked about the dissolution date of the Penang State Legislative Assembly, Chow said Penang will dissolve the state assembly in the last 10 days of this month.
“Actually, we don’t have a problem because we have reached the end of the term and as promised at the beginning of the year, it will happen at the end of June.
He is expected to announce the date of the dissolution of the state assembly after holding the last meeting of the Penang State Executive Council (MMK).
Penang has 40 state assembly seats and in the 14th General Election (GE14), PH won 37 seats, including two seats from Bersatu candidates who were still with PH while two were won by BN and one by PAS.
In GE15, Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan and Terengganu did not dissolve their state assemblies, and the media had earlier reported that the leaders of the six states reached a consensus that the most appropriate time to dissolve their state assemblies was during the last two weeks of June to allow the election in the six states to be conducted simultaneously.-Bernama
