This comes after the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Mohd Ali Rustam dissolved the Melaka state assembly today following an announcement that four state assemblymen had retracted support for chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali.

This was announced in a press conference by assembly speaker Ab Rauf Yusoh.

In a statement, former chief minister Adly Zahari said the dissolution of the state assembly clearly showed that chief minister Sulaiman had lost support.

“Therefore, Sulaiman should no longer remain as chief minister of the caretaker government,” he added.

Yesterday, former Melaka chief minister and Sungai Udang assemblyman Idris Haron announced that the state government had fallen.

This comes after three executive councillors resigned and an Umno assemblyman withdrew his support for Sulaiman.

Along with Idris, who is from Umno, former DAP man Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu), Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu-Telok Mas) and Nor Azman Hassan (Umno-Pantai Kundor) had also retracted their support for the state government.

The announcement came after a week-long speculation over plans to oust Sulaiman as chief minister, supposedly after two months of negotiations between Pakatan Harapan and the four state assemblymen.

Meanwhile, Adly, who is Amanah’s Bukit Katil assemblyman, also took aim at Sulaiman for requesting that the state assembly be dissolved amid the Covid-19 pandemic, calling it “irresponsible”.

“Pakatan Harapan is of the opinion that Sulaiman’s request to dissolve the state assembly shows his irresponsible attitude as the people are still struggling with Covid-19,” he said.

Melaka reported 246 Covid-19 cases today. It also has more than 4,000 active cases according to the health ministry’s CovidNow website.

The state still has one of the highest infectivity rates (R0, pronounced R-nought) in the country currently, at 1.01. Only Putrajaya has a higher rate with 1.04.