Saarani sworn in as Perak MB

KUALA KANGSAR: Kota Tampan state assemblyman Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad was sworn in as the 14th Menteri Besar of Perak for the new term, before the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah at 5.40 pm.

Saarani, 61, received the letter of appointment from Sultan Nazrin before taking the oath in a ceremony held at Istana Iskandariah, here.

He then signed the letter of appointment witnessed by Ipoh High Court Judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed.

Also present at the ceremony were the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Jaafar Raja Muda Musa and Raja Dihilir Perak, Raja Iskandar Dzulkarnain Sultan Idris Shah.

Sultan Nazrin consented to Saarani's appointment based on Article 16 Clause 2 (a) of the Constitution of Perak after the Kota Tampan assemblyman had gained the majority support of state assemblymen.

The appointment of the Perak State UMNO Liaison Body chairman as the Menteri Besar was agreed upon by Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) after the two political coalitions agreed to work together to form the state government.

In GE15, Perikatan Nasional (PN) won 26 seats while PH and BN won 24 and nine seats respectively.

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.

-- BERNAMA