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Wan Azizah urges Selangor Chief Minister to resign

KUALA LUMPUR — Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) president, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, yesterday urged embattled Selangor Chief Minister Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to resign from his post, after announcing that she had the support of 30 representatives in the 56-seat state assembly.

KUALA LUMPUR — Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) president, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, yesterday urged embattled Selangor Chief Minister Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to resign from his post, after announcing that she had the support of 30 representatives in the 56-seat state assembly.

“With this latest development, we confirm that we have the majority in the House by at least four persons,” said Dr Wan Azizah.

She was speaking at a press conference attended by leaders from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition, as well as all Selangor assemblymen from the PKR and Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Two assemblymen from Parti IslamSe-Malaysia (PAS) who supported her were also present.

The PR, comprising the PKR, DAP and PAS, jointly helm the state. The alliance was formed in the wake of the general election in March 2008.

However, the pact has been dogged by divisions among the DAP, which has an ethnic Chinese majority, PKR and PAS, an Islamic party.

Those differences have surfaced over the leadership of Selangor, of which the opposition won control in 2008 in a huge setback for the Barisan Nasional government and retained last year.

Dr Wan Azizah said she had sent a letter to seek an audience with the Sultan of Selangor, who is out of state and is expected to return in two weeks.

However, Mr Khalid refused to acknowledge Dr Wan Azizah’s claims of securing majority support, saying it had to be substantiated with a motion of no-confidence.

Meanwhile, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang challenged Mr Khalid to convene an emergency state assembly sitting to test his majority.

“As an emergency state assembly can be convened only by the (Chief Minister), is Khalid prepared to uphold the word and spirit of the Selangor Constitution to convene such an emergency meeting?” said Mr Lim in a statement.

Mr Khalid was expelled from the PKR last week over his open defiance of the party’s decision that he must step down to make way for Dr Wan Azizah.

The second-term Chief Minister had been widely criticised over his handling of various state issues.

On Monday, the Selangor Sultan consented to Mr Khalid remaining in his post, as the latter said he still commanded the support from the majority in the House.

The next day, Mr Khalid sacked his state executive councillors from the PKR and DAP, purportedly for refusing to cooperate with him as Chief Minister.

The members of the state executive committee are drawn from the state legislative assembly and form the state government’s executive branch.

The PAS has yet to state its stand on the leadership crisis in the state, saying only that its representatives will continue to serve under Mr Khalid, until and unless the party’s leadership decides otherwise at its meeting on Sunday.

Yesterday, PAS secretary-general Mustaffa Ali said his party would investigate the actions of the two PAS representatives who were backing Dr Wan Azizah.

The PKR’s share of the 56-seat state assembly is now 13, while allies DAP and PAS have 15 seats each. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the lynchpin in the governing Barisan coalition, holds 12 seats.

The PAS has repeatedly stated that cooperation with its political foe UMNO is “impossible”.

In what is seen as a victory for the opposition, Selangor achieved a gross domestic product of about US$55 billion (S$68 billion) in 2012, which amounts to 23 per cent of Malaysia’s economy.

The state is also a hub for multinationals and has been seen as a testing ground for the opposition to prove its competence to take over power at the national level.

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