Ismail Sabri on dissolution of Parliament: ‘Wait!’

SERDANG: Amid all the chatter about dissolving Parliament, the Prime Minister has just one word in response to it.

“Tunggu, tunggu, tunggu (wait),” said Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob briefly when asked when Parliament would be dissolved to make way for the general election.

He told reporters this as he was leaving the Community Deve- lopment Department’s (Kemas) 60th anniversary gathering at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park in Serdang yesterday.

Budget 2023, which was initially scheduled to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 28, has been brought forward to Oct 7.

The change in date has further fuelled talk that Parliament would be dissolved and that the 15th General Election (GE15) would be called this year.

This despite Ismail Sabri’s remarks on Friday that there was nothing unusual with the government’s decision to bring forward the tabling of Budget 2023.

He pointed out that the Budget had been tabled as early as September when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was prime minister.

The call for the dissolution of Parliament was also made during an Umno special briefing on Saturday.

Ismail Sabri is one of Umno’s three vice-presidents. The others are Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had said that the demand to hold GE15 was not new as it began when the Pakatan Harapan government fell and continued when Perikatan Nasional took over the administration.

A general election must be held within 60 days of the dissolution of Parliament.