Penang dissolves Legislative Assembly for elections

The Penang state legislative assembly was dissolved today to enable the state elections to be held simultaneously with the 13th federal polls.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he had an audience with Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas this morning to seek his consent for the dissolution.

Addressing a gathering of state executive councillors and senior state government officers here, Lim said Speaker Datuk Abdul Halim Hussin submitted the notification of dissolution to the state Election Commission office at 11 am.

Penang has 40 state seats, 19 of them on the island and 21 on the mainland.

In the last general election, in 2008, the opposition pact formed the state government after the DAP won 19 seats, PKR, nine and PAS, one. The Barisan Nasional (BN) won only 11 seats, all of them represented by Umno.

Penang has 13 parliamentary seats, seven of which were held by the DAP in the last Dewan Rakyat while PKR had held four and Umno, two.

Two PKR MPs, Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim (Bayan Baru) and Tan Tee Beng (Nibong Tebal), subsequently quit the party and declared themselves independent.