MB: BN's May 7 sitting is invalid

MB: BN's May 7 sitting is invalid
Andrew Ong | May 12, 09 8:47am
The Kuala Lumpur High Court decision yesterday which reinstated Pakatan Rakyat's Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as the legitimate menteri besar of Perak, had in effect made the May 7 state assembly sitting invalid.
MCPX
And as such all four motions passed during the sitting, including the installation of R Ganesan as the speaker, was also similarly invalid, said Nizar during a press conference at 12.30am this morning at his rented home in Sungai Rokam, near Ipoh.

Nizar added that this was because the court decision had ruled that he was the legitimate menteri besar at all material times, including when Barisan Nasional Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir called for the state assembly sitting.

During the May 7 sitting, BN installed Ganesan as the state assembly speaker under very controversial circumstances which saw incumbent speaker V Sivakumar being forcefully dragged out of the speaker's chair.

"(Ganesan) did not even take his oath," Nizar said, adding that Ganesan nor BN had the authority to call for an emergency sitting now.

Ganesan and several other BN leaders have publicly mooted the idea of sacking Nizar as the menteri besar through a vote of no-confidence in an emergency sitting, expected to be called within the next few days.

"As far as we are concerned, they have no right to call for an assembly. How can they call for a sitting when they don't have the legitimacy to do so?" he asked.

Tree assembly stands

Asked if this would result in an automatic dissolution of the state assembly after May 13, Nizar said that was not an issue because an emergency sitting was already held in March.

(The last sitting before the BN takeover of the Perak government in February was in November last year and the assembly is deemed to be dissolved if no meeting is held for more than six months.)

"Our constitution doesn't specifically say this. The constitution is silent on this part... We don't have a problem. We have until September (to hold the sitting) because our last sitting on March 3, under the tree," he said.

Nizar was referring to the emergency sitting held under a nearby tree after police and civil servants locked up the state assembly to prevent the proceedings.

Zambry had failed to obtain a court ruling to invalidate the tree assembly but later passed a motion during May 7 sitting to declare the sitting illegal.

However, Nizar stressed that his immediate priority now was to seek royal consent for the dissolution of the state assembly to pave way for fresh elections to resolve the state political deadlock