PERAK CM ERRS IN DISSOLVING STATE ASSEMBLY, SAYS LAWYER

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- Perak Chief Minister Mohammad
Nizar Jamaluddin has erred in announcing the dissolution of the State
Legislative Assembly prior to obtaining the consent of Sultan Azlan Shah, a
lawyer said Wednesday.

Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said this is because the power to dissolve the state
assembly is in the hands of the Ruler of the state and in this case the Sultan,
not the Chief Minister.

He said the Perak Constitution clearly states that dissolving the state
assembly is the prerogative of the Sultan and nobody else has the power
to dissolve the assembly.

"It's like the Prime Minister announcing the dissolution of Parliament
before obtaining the consent of the King. Likewise, in this
case, the Chief Minister must first obtain the consent from the Ruler before
making the announcement," he told Bernama.

He said it was unclear how the Chief Minister had concluded to dissolve the
state government.

A former High Court judge who declined to be named said Nizar's move
could lead to "a constitutional repercussion".

"It would be nicer if the Chief Minister had informed the Sultan prior to
making the dissolution announcement. He should have had an audience with the
Sultan but if he did not, then he may have very urgent reason for his action,"
he said.

The present Perak government is in the brink of collapse after the Changkat
Jering, Behrang and Jelapang assemblymen left the Pas-Parti Keadilan Rakyat
(People's Justice Party)-DAP alliance and become independent assemblymen.

At the same time, the Bota assemblyman who left National Front (Barisan
Nasional - BN) to join People's Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) only a
week ago is returning to BN.

Following these developments, the Pas-Parti Keadilan Rakyat-DAP
alliance's majority the 59-seat state assembly drops from 32 to 28 while BN's
seats rose from 27 to 28,.

This afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a press
conference that BN has enough state assemblymen to form the next government as
the three independent have vowed to support BN.

-- BERNAMA