Chong Zhemin (Keranji) said this is to prevent the state’s legitimate government from being toppled by assemblymen who jump ship, as had been the case twice before.

His comments follow a Bernama report that menteri besar Saarani Mohamad will meet Sultan Nazrin Shah at 2pm today to seek his consent to dissolve the state assembly, which will allow state elections to be held in line with the 15th general election (GE15).

“In one day, Saarani could call for an emergency state assembly sitting, present the anti-hopping enactment, debate it, and approve the amendment of the state constitution in line with the Federal Constitution,” he said in a statement.

“I am confident that drafting this law in the state constitution will get the support of more than two-thirds of the state assembly.”

Chong noted that over the past 11 years, the Perak government had been brought down twice after certain assemblymen defected to other parties.

“The first time was in 2009, when three assemblymen from Pakatan Rakyat left their respective parties to support Barisan Nasional as independents, overthrowing the Pakatan Rakyat government,” he said.

“The second betrayal happened in 2020, when assemblymen shifted their support, causing the Pakatan Harapan government to fall.”

Yesterday, Saarani said he would be meeting Sultan Nazrin Shah today to seek his consent to dissolve the state assembly and make way for elections.

Perak is one of the five states led by Barisan Nasional (BN). The others are Perlis and Pahang, which are also said to be seeking dissolution of their state assemblies, and Johor and Melaka, which held their state elections recently.

Yesterday, Perlis menteri besar Azlan Man said the state assembly will be dissolved after it has tabled a bill to enact the state’s anti-hopping law.

Azlan said the bill will be tabled at the legislative assembly on Thursday to amend the state constitution, in line with the amendment made in the Federal Constitution for the anti-hopping law.