THE distribution of seats between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) for the Penang state elections is 95% resolved.

Penang PH chairman Chow Kon Yeow said negotiations that have been going on since last month are proceeding smoothly and there are still some seats that have not been decided because they are overlapping seats.

“Negotiations for the allocation of seats are already 95% complete and there are a few more seats where there are overlapping requests,” he told reporters after officiating at the Interactive Edutainment Programme at Gleneagles Hospital in George Town today.

Chow, who is also Penang chief minister, said PH-BN will hold the third state election seat negotiation meeting in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.

“I believe tomorrow will be the third and final negotiation… if there is no decision, we may have to hand it over to the presidential council. We are meeting in Kuala Lumpur because the negotiations have been brought to the central level,” he said.

On the dissolution date of the Penang state legislative assembly, Chow said the assembly will be dissolved in the last 10 days of this month.

“We don’t have a problem because we have reached the end of the term and as promised at the beginning of the year, it will happen at the end of June,” he said.

Penang has 40 state seats and in the 2018 general election, PH won 37 seats, including two from Bersatu candidates who were still with PH while two were won by BN and one by PAS.

In last year’s general election, Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kelantan and Terengganu did not dissolve their state assemblies, and the media had earlier reported that the leaders of the six states reached a consensus that the most appropriate time to dissolve their state assemblies was in the last two weeks of June to allow the elections to be conducted simultaneously. – Bernama, June 5, 2023.