No need for Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor to dissolve ahead of Parliament

Should the Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor dissolve ahead of Parliament if the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak continues to be indecisive despite the automatic dissolution of the Negri Sembilan State Assembly?

There are respective pros and cons but on the balance, I do not think there is any need for the Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor to dissolve ahead of Parliament as the 13th General Elections must be held latest by May 25 if there is going to be simultaneous Parliament/State general elections.

It is the prerogative for each state government through the Chief Minister or Mentri Besar and the Ruler concerned to decide when to dissolve the respective State Assemblies as there is nothing in the Federal or State Constitutions which require any State Government to wait for the cue from the dissolution of Parliament before there could be a dissolution of any State Assembly.

However, as Parliament and the various State Assemblies have already been pushed to the last lap of their tenures, with Parliament already exceeding its five-year natural life and the Negri Sembilan State Assembly to be automatically dissolved on midnight tonight, followed by Pahang (April 5), Johor and Malacca (April 19), Selangor (April 20), Perak, Perlis and Kelantan (April 26) before Parliament is automatically dissolved (April 27), no distinct advantage is likely to be accrued from any early dissolution of the Pakatan Rakyat-state governments.