Poll Position: Lucky 13 after all...
Technorati tags: General Elections, Announcement, Poll Results, Malaysia, Parliament
Done in the very best best no, but yeah, but no, but yeah fashion, our grandmaster flip-flop PM finally announced the dissolution of Parliament early this afternoon in a special press conference.
He made a brief statement to the media - carried 'live' by RTM - stating that the Election Commission (EC) will have to fix the date for the nation’s 12th general election.
Abdullah was flanked by his deputy Najib Abdul Razak when he delivered the announcement in a room packed with journalists and photographers.
"I had an audience with the King this morning and he assented to dissolution of Parliament effective today, to pave the way for the 12th general election as provided under Article 55 of the Federal Constitution," he said.
(source: Malaysiakini - subscription required)
And with that, the poll Walski put up over the weekend has been rendered moot. You can, of course, still vote until midnight tonight (if you really, really must), but what's the point, really?
As of this posting, with only 12 of you folks bothering to vote, 5 of you (41.7%) thought it would indeed be today. To be honest, Walski wasn't one of them - he thought it would have been later this month.
So, now comes the next big question: when nomination day and the polls will be. But as Malaysiakini reports, we won't know until tomorrow.
(EC to decide on poll date, in the full post)
The EC has confirmed to journalists that it will meet tomorrow and will announce details at a press conference, to be held at its headquarters at 11am.
EC head Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, asked to verify speculation that nomination day would be Feb 21 and polls held on March 2, replied: "You can speculate anything you want, the official announcement is tomorrow, you wait for the official announcment."
(source: Malaysiakini, subscription required)
Done in typical Abdul Rashid style, no less. By law, the General Elections has to be set within 60 days of the dissolution of Parliament, which means polls cannot be any later than April 13, 2008.
This time around, Walski won't speculate when the 12th General Elections will be, but he suspects that it will fall sometime during the upcoming school holidays, sometime in March. And no, Walski won't bother with putting up another poll. Not about when the polls are going to be anyway.
Another poll will be coming up real soon. About what? Well, you'll just have to wait and see now won't you... (snicker, snicker).
