PMO denies rumour that Parliament has been dissolved

Rumour had it that the PM met with the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong this morning and received His Majesty’s consent to dissolve Parliament.KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has crushed speculation that Parliament was dissolved today to pave the way for the 13th general elections.

In a Twitter posting, the PMO said: “Salam sejahtera. Khabar angin yg menyatakan Parlimen akan dibubarkan hari ini, oleh Perdana Menteri @NajibRazak, tidak benar sama sekali.”

[In English, it reads: Greetings. The rumour that states Parliament will be dissolved today by Prime Minister @NajibRazak, is absolutely not true]

Rumour had it that Datuk Seri Najib Razak met with the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong this morning and received His Majesty’s consent to dissolve Parliament.

This is the second-longest period of more than five years since the country held a general election with the last time being the period between the country’s third general election in May 1969 and the fourth general election in August 1974.

Top Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders met on March 18 to finalise the candidates’ list for 222 federal and 505 state seats in Election 2013, which will be held within a month, The Malaysian Insider had reported yesterday.

A source had disclosed that there will be a greater number of new faces although Najib, who is also BN chairman, is expected to retain some veterans for continuity, especially those who scored high marks in the government annual report card announced last night.

In his National Transformation Programme (NTP) annual report speech, Najib trumpeted his government’s achievements over the past three years, and promised an annual Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) cash handouts scheme.

The prime minister also took the chance to attack Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in his National Transformation Programme (NTP) annual report speech today, reminding the public to continue the mandate of his Barisan Nasional (BN) government instead of voting PR in the upcoming polls.

“The people of Malaysia must choose between ... a government that will continue proven policies, or the other side who speak with a forked tongue, who take people’s trust lightly,” Najib said here when outlining the many achievements of the dual-pronged Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

“Choose a transformative government, not a destructive one.”

The prime minister then proceeded to end his speech by announcing that the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) initiative will continue to be an annual handout.

BR1M has reportedly helped nearly five million families at a cost of RM2.6 billion last year, increasing Najib’s approval ratings up to 69 per cent, largely due to a surge among lower-income households.

BR1M is a one-time handout of RM500 for Malaysian households earning RM3000 and below, and the second payout will be made this year under Budget 2013 with an allocation of RM3 billion and is expected to benefit 4.3 million households.

The move has been criticised as an attempt to sway votes for the upcoming general election, including the controversial remark by Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat who likened it to feeding livestock to garner support.

According to the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), with the current momentum, Malaysia is expected to reach a Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of US$15,000 (RM 46,840) by 2018, two years before its target of 2020.

Besides the target GNI per capita, Malaysia also needs to create 3.3 million jobs and secure US$444 billion (RM1.3 trillion) in investments by 2020 in order to become a high-income nation.

Analysts have pointed out that the transformation initiatives under ETP and GTP contributed to Malaysia’s GDP growth rate of 6.4 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year.

Some 13.3 million voters, including 3,000-odd abroad, have registered to vote in what is seen as the country’s most-anticipated and closely-fought general election. The last general election was on March 8, 2008 but Najib has taken his time to dissolve Parliament.

The PM has up to April 28 before it automatically expires but sources say Parliament is likely to be dissolved within a week with elections in mid-April.

BN officials privately predict that the ruling coalition could get back its two-thirds majority although the PR pact led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is also confident of a victory.