PH confident of forming Kedah govt

ALOR STAR: There should be no problem for the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition to form the new Kedah government despite having one seat short of the 19 seats needed for a simple majority.

Kedah Amanah chief Datuk Dr Ismail Salleh said winning 18 state seats is enough for the coalition to be declared as the new state government.

“We won 18 seats and are the most solid coalition with the most number of seats in the Kedah state assembly,” he told theSun.

Ismail, who won the Pengkalan Kundor state seat, said they were scheduled to meet the sultan at the palace in Anak Bukit today to finalise the mentri besar candidate, which is the reason for the delay in the announcement.

When asked if BN and PAS would decide to join forces and threaten the coalition’s effort to form the state government, Ismail assured the palace will not entertain them.

The swearing-in ceremony of the mentri besar was scheduled to be held early yesterday but was postponed as no party had won the minimum of 19 seats to enjoy a simple majority.

PH won 18 of the 36 state seats in the elections, while PAS won 15 and and Barisan Nasional (BN), three, resulting in a hung assembly.

In PERAK, the formation of a state government is seen as hanging in the balance as there was no party which obtained a simple majority, Bernama reported.

PKR won 29 seats, BN (27) and PAS (three) from a total of 59 seats.

PKR needs at least one more seat to form the state government with a simple majority.

But PAS can play kingmaker by throwing its support behind BN, to bring the number to 30 seats.