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Parliament to be dissolved today?
PM Najib will be making a televised announcement at 11:30am today.
After months of guessing games, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is expected to announce the dissolution of Parliament today, paving the way for the 13th general election.
He will be speaking on TV live at 11.30am, after meeting with the king early this morning. It is now up to the Election Commission (EC), according to law, to fix the date for the election, which must be within 60 days. Nevertheless, EC is likely to pick early May as the polling date.
Najib will be seeking his first mandate since assuming the post of prime minister on April 3, 2009, after taking over from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Today is exactly four years since Najib became premier.
Abdullah led BN to its worst ever electoral outing in 2008, losing five states as well as its long-time hold on a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
There are 222 parliamentary seats up for grabs, with the ruling BN currently holds 137 seats, Pakatan Rakyat, 75, and the other 10 going to independents and three other parties. Whichever coalition that wins 112 seats will claim power.
Meanwhile, Pakatan controls four states - Selangor, Penang, Kelantan and Kedah, while BN has nine under its belt.
This time around, Najib is seen as facing an increasingly cohesive Pakatan Rakyat, which aims to unseat the ruling party and install Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister.
This election will see a huge number of new voters - an increase of 3 million, or 25 percent, since 2008 GE, making it the biggest spike in Malaysia’s history. Last edited by CariReporter on 3-4-2013 11:22 AM
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Post time 3-4-2013 11:11 AM
Post time 3-4-2013 11:20 AM
