By-election for three vacant Perlis assembly seats not required, says speaker

KANGAR: The Perlis State Assembly announced that there would no longer be a need to hold by-elections for these three state seats.

“The decision was made under Clause (5) of Article 55 of the Perlis State Constitution and was officially communicated to the Perlis State Election Commission through a letter dated Dec 30, 2025,” said Perlis Legislative Assembly Speaker Rus’sele Eizan during a press conference at the state assembly’s legislative building on Wednesday (Dec 31).

However, Rus’sele noted that the previously declared vacancies for the Chuping, Bintong and Guar Sanji state assembly seats would still remain in effect, as indicated in his letter dated Dec 29.

On Dec 24, PAS announced that three assemblymen were no longer members of PAS after signing statutory declarations to remove Mohd Shukri Ramli as Perlis’s Mentri Besar.

The three assemblymen were Saad Seman (Chuping), Fakhrul Anwar Ismail (Bintong), and Mohd Ridzuan Hashim (Guar Sanji). Additionally, five other Bersatu assemblymen in Perlis signed statutory declarations.

On Dec 25, Rus’sele said he was satisfied the three seats were vacant and that it was up to the Election Commission (EC) to decide whether to call for by-elections.

On Dec 26, Mohd Shukri resigned, citing health reasons and was replaced by Bersatu’s Abu Bakar Hamzah on Dec 28.