He said the state BN had also sent the list of state legislative assembly candidates to the central leadership following Penang DAP’s proposal that the Penang state assembly be dissolved following the dissolution of Parliament.

“We are also waiting for the Penang government’s decision as to whether the state assembly is dissolved to pave the way for the general elections to be held simultaneously for both state and Parliament, and if the state assembly is not dissolved, the machinery will focus on parliamentary seats only,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.

Yesterday, DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook said Penang DAP had proposed that the state assembly be dissolved and the matter would be discussed at the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council meeting.

Musa, who is also Penang Umno chairman, said 60% of the Umno candidates submitted to the leadership were new faces.

In GE14, Penang BN contested in 40 state seats and 13 parliamentary seats with Gerakan contesting in 13 state seats and four parliamentary seats, Umno (15 state seats, five parliamentary seats), MCA (10 state states, four parliamentary seats) while MIC contested in two state seats.

On June 23, 2018, Gerakan officially quit BN following the coalition’s loss in GE14 and joined Perikatan Nasional in February last year.