IPOH, Nov 21 — Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad was sworn in today as the new Menteri Besar of Perak, the first state to form its government after the 15th General Election (GE15) last Saturday.
Saarani, the Kota Tampan state assemblyman, took his oath of office before Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah at Istana Iskandariah Kuala Kangsar at 5.30 pm.
Earlier today, it was announced that BN and Pakatan Harapan (PH) had agreed to form a unity government in Perak.
No single party or coalition obtained a simple majority in the Perak state election, with Perikatan Nasional (PN) winning 26 seats, PH (24) and BN (nine) in the 59-member State Assembly.
Apart from Perak, two other states – Perlis and Pahang – also held their state elections simultaneously with GE15.
The previous Perak government was a coalition involving BN, Bersatu and PAS.
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris Shah lecturer Prof Dr Ishak Saat said the BN-PH cooperation showed that both sides were magnanimous enough to work together in the interests of the country although they had campaigned on different platforms.
“Parties need to compromise to form a government due to the political and economic conditions in the country. Actually, there is no problem as they need to move on after GE15, as no one obtained a simple majority. The people should accept this for the sake of the country,” said Ishak, who is from the university’s History and Human Sciences Department.
“Thirty seats are needed to form the state government in Perak but BN and PH combined have 33 seats, more than a simple majority,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
He said the people should also accept this as the decision to form the unity government had been consented to by Sultan Nazrin Shah, who was acting in accordance with the Perak State Constitution.
Saarani, who is Perak BN and UMNO chairman, has been the Kota Tampan assemblyman since 2004 and was first appointed as the 14th Perak Menteri Besar on Dec 10, 2020.
In GE15, Saarani obtained 5,468 votes to beat Mohd Jamil Yahya of PN and Mohd Sabri Abdul Manaf of PH.
He was also the Perak Opposition leader from 2018 to 2020.
As the Menteri Besar in December 2020, he took the unprecedented step of giving an equal allocation of RM200,000 to all the 59 state assemblymen, regardless of whether they were from the government or the opposition.
