Kedah’s Pakatan govt may be the next to fall

Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir

ALOR SETAR: The Kedah government looks to be clinging to dear life as talk of crossovers of Pakatan Harapan assemblymen hots up.

The current Pakatan state government led by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir is on the brink of collapse as it only commands a simple two-seat majority in the 36-seat state assembly.

Between Pakatan and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, Mukhriz is hanging on with 19 seats against 17 of Perikatan Nasional and there is strong speculation that some assemblymen from Pakatan may hop over to Perikatan.

PAS, which eyes the coveted mentri besar post, has the most seats (15) in Perikatan.

Its commissioner Ahmad Yahaya, however, said nothing was concluded although there were discussions with certain assemblymen keen to cross over.

“The discussions were conducted based on their capacity as individuals and not on a party basis.

“Whatever discussions that we had, they decided that they must toe their party lines first, ” he said.

Ahmad declined to elaborate on who those assemblymen were but indicated that they were from PKR and Bersatu.

Apart from PAS, the 36 state seats in Kedah are taken up by PKR (seven), Bersatu (six) and Amanah (four), while DAP and Umno have two seats each.

It would take only two assemblymen from Pakatan or Bersatu to defect for Mukhriz to lose majority control.

After the 2018 general election, Kedah had a hung assembly with both Pakatan and Barisan Nasional having 18 seats each.

In December 2018, Guar Chempedak assemblyman Datuk Dr Ku Abdul Rahman Ku Ismail quit Umno and joined Bersatu to tip the scale.

Party insiders from PKR revealed that Lunas assemblyman Azman Nasrudin and Sidam assemblyman Dr Robert Ling Kui Ee could be the key to the collapse of Pakatan’s Kedah government.

The duo, who are known to be part of the “Azmin cartel” in Kedah, are said to be ready to cross over to Perikatan.

“These two assemblymen will become the factor in the change of state government sooner or later, ” said the source.

It is understood that International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, who quit PKR to join Bersatu, still wants Mukhriz as mentri besar in the new state government, but only if Bersatu joins Perikatan en bloc so that the new government will get more than just a simple majority.

The source, however, added that it is up to Mukhriz to choose the status quo or go against his father Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s stand of not working with Umno.