No State Elections?

By Michelle Ng

First and foremost, allow me to record my congratulations to YB Wong Chen for retaining his position as Member of Parliament for Subang. May you continue to pursue righteousness and justice in your coming term.

As we were campaigning in Subang Jaya with YB Wong Chen, many residents asked me – why is it that we do not have state elections this time round?

I thought of taking this opportunity to explain. The headlines that dominated the news at that time when Parliament dissolved was of how the Selangor State Government chose not to dissolve because it wanted to focus on the floods – that is true. In fact, many parts of Klang Valley faced floods during the campaigning period, and some voting centres had to be moved to make way for relief centres.

Of paramount consideration to me, however, was securing democracy. See – when Parliament was dissolved, Selangor’s anti-hopping law was not yet enacted.

There is a principle in law that whatever the State does must be in line with the Federal Constitution. Whilst the Federal Constitution was amended in Parliament in July this year, it still had to go through Senate and then obtain royal assent.

According to Law Minister, Dato Seri Dr Wan Junaidi, the law only took effect on the 5th of October and Parliament was immediately dissolved 5 days later on the 10th of October.

Had Parliament not dissolved, the Selangor State Assembly was supposed to convene on the 28th of October, but it had to be called off because they entire Government machinery had to be engaged for elections.

Now the amendment of the State Constitution to include the Anti-Hopping provision is important to ensure that Langkah Sheraton does not repeat itself. I believe Subangites would have been very angry if we hastily went ahead and dissolved the State Assembly together with Parliament and without an Anti-Hopping Law – this is because, should we have been faced with a 50-50 type situation in the State Assembly, severe unrest could have unraveled with risk of State Assemblymen hopping from one side to another.

Therefore, to preserve your vote, to preserve democracy, the State Assembly decided to delay elections until 2023.

I am happy to announce that as at the 23rd of November, the Anti-Hopping provision had been successfully included in the State Constitution, therefore positioning Selangor better for state elections in the near future.