93-Day Countdown to 13GE – Najib should dissolve Parliament by 8th March on expiry of 5-year tenure of Parliament instead of resorting to Article 55(3)of Constitution to secure another 50 days as unelected PM --Lim Kit Siang January 8, 2013

93-Day Countdown to 13GE – Najib should dissolve Parliament by 8th March on expiry of 5-year tenure of Parliament instead of resorting to Article 55(3)of Constitution to secure another 50 days as unelected PM

--Lim Kit Siang

January 8, 2013

Article 55(3) of the Malaysian Constitution states:

“55(3) Parliament unless sooner dissolved shall continue for five years from the date of its first meeting and shall then stand dissolved”.

The 12th Parliament was elected on March 8, 2008 – the polling day for the 12th general elections.
The first meeting of the present Parliament was on April 28, 2008. Under Article 55(3), unless Parliament is sooner dissolved, the 12th Parliament shall stand automatically dissolved on April 27, 2013.
The sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the nation’s longest unelected Prime Minister without a mandate of his own – longer than his four predecessors Tun Abdullah, Tun Mahathir, Tun Hussein and his father Tun Razak.
He should dissolve Parliament by 8th March 2013 on expiry of the five-year tenure of Parliament instead of resorting to the Constitutional device in Article 55(3) to secure another 50 days in office as unelected Prime Minister.
It is constitutional for Najib to secure another 50 days in office as unelected Prime Minister under Article 55(3) of the Constitution, but no other Prime Minister in Malaysia had ever to resort to such a constitutional device to extend his tenure as Prime Minister – and in this case, as unelected Prime Minister.
If Najib has to dissolve Parliament by March 8, 2013, he has 58 days left to call for the 13th general elections.
Is Najib prepared to announce in the next few days when he would dissolve Parliament before March 8, 2013 for the 13th general elections to be held?
UMNO leaders have been touring the country declaring that Najib has halted the “political tsunami” of 2008.
Prove it then in the 13GE.
Or are these boasts just empty bombast and hifalutin rhetoric, just like UMNO/Barisan Nasional claims that UMNO/BN could wrest back 20 parliamentary seats held by Pakatan Rakyat to secure two-thirds parliamentary majority in the 13GE – as well recapturing the PR state governments of Kelantan, Penang, Selangor and Kedah?
Is Najib confident of facing the 13GE by 8th March 2013 or does he need another 50 days to work up the courage to face the Malaysian electorate?