NEW NORTHERN STATE CM NAMED

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Feb 5 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Thursday announced that Pangkor assemblyman Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir is the new
northern state of Perak Menteri Besar (Chief Minister).

Abdullah said that the ruler of Perak, Sultan Sultan Azlan Shah, who had
earlier told Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin to resign as Perak Chief Minister, has
consented to the selection of Dr Zambry to take over the post.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place at the Iskandariah Palace in Kuala
Kangsar at 3.30pm Friday while those of the executive council members will be
on Tuesday at the same place.

Abdullah said this at a news conference on his arrival from Perak at the
Royal Malaysia Air Force base here.

He was accompanied by Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chairman
Mohd Annuar Zaini.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Nizar, who said Wednesday that he would abide by any
decision made by the ruler of Perak state in resolving the state's political
crisis, refused Thursday to resign on the conviction that he still legally holds
the post under the Perak State Constitution.

In the March 8 general election last year, Perak was one of the five states
won by the opposition.

Mohammad Nizar said when he was granted an audience with the ruler earlier,
he was ordered to resign from his post and the ruler also did not consent to the
dissolution of the state assembly.

He said: "We are not rejecting the ruler's command, but we are appealing to
him to follow the provisions of the Perak State Constitution."

He said he had also explained to the ruler that the ruling Barisan Nasional
(BN) coalition could not form the next state government as their majority in the
state assembly was not real.

State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar, he added, had prior to this, declared
that there were three vacant seats and had applied to the court to declare them
likewise.

Mohammad Nizar said BN now had 28 state assembly seats and People's Alliance
(PR) also 28, while Independents had three, hence the best solution to the issue
was to dissolve the state assembly to enable the people to choose a new state
government.

Mohamad Nizar said he would go to his office as usual Friday and would
continue with his official duties.

According to Mohammad Nizar, Article 16 of the Perak State Constitution
states that if the Menteri Besar has lost the confidence of the state assembly,
a motion of no-confidence could be tabled at a special session, other than
dissolving the state assembly.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party) advisor Anwar Ibrahim, on the
other hand, claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had wrested power
in Perak by buying over assemblymen and issuing threats.

Four assemblymen announced Wednesday that they were leaving their respective
parties. Hee was from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) while the rest were from
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). These parties are component of the opposition's
People's Alliance.

Three of the assemblymen said that they would serve as independents while
another, who left ruling component party United Malays National Organisation
(Umno) to join PKR on Jan 25, returned to Umno.

Najib met the Perak ruler on Thursday morning to seek his consent for the BN
to take over the Perak government, a day after the four assemblymen declared
their support for the BN, giving it a simple majority to form the state
government.
-- BERNAMA