PETALING JAYA: The Perlis state assembly will notify the Election Commission (EC) of the vacancies for the three seats held by the three PAS members booted out of the party on Wednesday (Dec 24), says Perlis Legislative Assembly Speaker Rus'sele Eizan.
The three–Chuping assemblyman Saad Seman, Bintong assemblyman Fakhrul Anwar Ismail and Guar Sanji assemblyman Mohd Ridzuan Hashim–had their PAS memberships terminated after signing statutory declarations (SDs) to retract their support for Mentri Besar Mohd Shukri Ramli.
Five other Bersatu state assemblymen also signed the SDs.
“I have received written notice, and I am satisfied in accordance with the Constitution of the State of Perlis that these three seats are considered vacant.
“I will be notifying the EC on these three vacancies soon, which has to be done within 21 days.
“It is up to the EC to decide whether there should be elections.
“I knew that they were going to sign the SDs and had advised both parties PAS and Bersatu, from going ahead. However, they were adamant to bring the MB down, and they had stated that consequences would be of second priority,” said Rus'sele at a press conference on Thursday (Dec 25) in Arau.
He also said there had never been any filings of motions for a vote of no confidence to remove the MB prior to this.
Technically, without the support of the eight assemblymen, Mohd Shukri would lose a simple majority and therefore be unable to remain as Mentri Besar.
There are 15 seats in the Perlis state assembly, of which PAS holds nine, Bersatu five and Pakatan Harapan’s PKR one.
On Dec 24, PAS central committee had said that it would immediately inform the Speaker of the Perlis state legislative assembly of this decision for the purpose of complying with Article 50A(1)(a)(ii) of the Perlis State Constitution Enactment (Amendment) 2022.
