Who Will It Be The New Selangor MB?:Azmin or Iskandar | The crisis over the Selangor mentri besar post will end soon with the Palace expected to announce the new man by early next week.
Invitation cards, confirmed as authentic by Palace officials, have already been sent out for the swearing-in at 10am on Tuesday.
The Palace has been tight-lipped about who the new mentri besar will be but the choice has been short-listed to PKR deputy president Azmin Ali and PAS state executive councillor Iskandar Samad.
Azmin is Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman while Iskandar is Chempaka assemblyman. Both are state chairmen of their parties.
It is more or less confirmed that PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who was elected Kajang assemblyman last March, will not get the coveted post.
Outgoing Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s resignation will take effect upon the swearing-in of the new mentri besar.
The Tuesday swearing-in means that the Sultan is not going to wait for more names to be presented by PKR and DAP in this long-drawn saga that has consumed the time of Pakatan Rakyat leaders in Selangor.
The two parties had nominated only Dr Wan Azizah despite clear instructions from the Palace to propose more than two names as well as concerns expressed by the Palace that she would be a “remote-controlled Mentri Besar”.
This was clearly articulated in an exclusive report published in The Star last month.
The Palace had also made it known that the Sultan may choose the next mentri besar from the list of three names submitted by PAS or from a name outside the list.
The controversy has drawn two strongly-worded statements from the Palace. In the first, the Sultan said DAP and PKR were being disloyal or derhaka in their refusal to submit other names, and he found this to be an act of insolence orkebiadapan.
The second statement, issued yesterday, told off PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for causing confusion with misinformation on the Palace conventions in confirming a mentri besar.
Anwar had claimed that the practice of nominating only one name for the mentri besar post has been the convention since Independence.
It is also learnt that there had been so many fake announcements about swearing-in ceremonies that the Palace staff received a string of calls from people enquiring whether the invitations they got were genuine.
Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the PAS muktamar in Batu Pahat, secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali said the post belonged to PKR. But he added that if the Sultan offered it to PAS, all the parties had to accept the decision.
However, deputy president Mohamad Sabu said PAS would reject the post because it would be a short-lived appointment without the agreement of DAP and PKR - The Star online