COMMENT | The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) while acknowledging that it is the right of Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal to call for the dissolution of the Sabah state assembly to pave the way for fresh state election due to defections by state assemblypersons from his ruling coalition, we wish to reiterate that the perennial problem of defections by elected representatives that result in collapses of both state and Federal governments will remain in Malaysian politics as long as our law permits it.

In a parliamentary democracy, it is the prerogative of the head of government (the chief minister in this case) to request for early dissolution and the prerogative of the Head of State (the Governor) to decide to whether withhold his/her consent. If the consent has been granted, an election cannot be cancelled by any claimant of majority in the dissolved legislature...