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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-parliament-dissolved-election-ge15-ismail-sabri-2998901 PM Ismail Sabri announces dissolution of Malaysia parliament, paving the way for snap polls to be held The dissolution paves the way for Malaysia's 15th general election to be held this year. PM Ismail Sabri announces dissolution of Malaysia parliament, paving the way for snap polls to be held In this photo released by Malaysia's Department of Information, Malaysia's Finance Minister Zafrul Aziz, center left, delivers the 2023 budget speech at parliament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (Photo: Famer Roheni/Malaysia…see more Amir Yusof Amir Yusof 10 Oct 2022 03:19PM (Updated: 10 Oct 2022 03:40PM) Bookmark Share KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Monday (Oct 10) that parliament has been dissolved, paving the way for national elections to be held before the end of the year. Speaking during a televised national address at 3pm, Mr Ismail Sabri said he sought consent from the king at noon on Sunday to dissolve parliament and his request was accepted. Advertisement "I encourage all state governments, except the governments of Sabah, Sarawak, Johor and Melaka to dissolve their respective state assemblies at the same date as the General Election at the federal level, even though some states have decided not to dissolve" he said. "It is preferable for (both state and national polls) to be held at the same time so that the people are not burdened, and to ensure that the process of democracy runs smoothly and costs are reduced," added Mr Ismail Sabri. The prime minister said that the stipulated dates for nomination day, polling day and other related matters will be determined by the Election Commission. "With this announcement, the mandate is returned to the people," he said. "The people's mandate is a powerful antidote for the country to achieve political stability and create a strong, stable and respected government after GE15." Advertisement There has been intense speculation about the dissolution of parliament to pave the way for the 15th general election (GE15). Last Friday, Mr Ismail Sabri’s government unveiled a budget of RM372.3 billion (US$80.06 billion) for 2023 amid an uncertain global environment and expected slow growth. It is one of the largest budgets in Malaysia's history. Related: 5 key takeaways from Malaysia’s 2023 budget An election is not due until September 2023, but Mr Ismail Sabri has been under pressure from some factions of his ruling coalition to hold the vote earlier. On Sep 30, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) supreme council decided that parliament must be dissolved soon so that GE15 can be held this year. UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is facing 47 charges of criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering, has been very vocal in pushing for snap polls, ostensibly to seek a fresh mandate from the people. Advertisement UMNO’s call for an early GE15 has been criticised by the opposition and Mr Ismail Sabri’s own Cabinet members as Malaysia’s Meteorological Department has warned of floods during the north-east monsoon season, which typically starts in November and ends in March. The presidential council of the main opposition bloc Pakatan Harapan said in a statement last Wednesday that the three states controlled by the coalition - Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Penang - will only dissolve their state assemblies next year due to concerns over floods. State assemblies led by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) - Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah - will also not be dissolved if a general election is held soon, said party deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man last Wednesday, according to a report by Free Malaysia Today. Related: Not the right time to hold polls during flood season in Malaysia, says Khairy No issue if Malaysia’s general election is held during monsoon season: UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Perikatan Nasional (PN) Cabinet ministers sent a letter to the king to voice their objections over holding GE15 this year, Mr Tuan Ibrahim said then. PN, which comprises Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and PAS, is a component of the ruling coalition together with UMNO-led Barisan Nasional. Advertisement In response to concerns about holding GE15 during floods, UMNO’s Ahmad Zahid had criticised the opposition for using the floods and inflation narrative to resist an early general election, labelling the flood narrative as a “myth”. Source: CNA/ya(ih)

Let's say (hypothetically, of course), in a fictitious country S, that Candidates A and B are in the midst of a really tight electoral race run on the First Past The Post (FPTP) system. The news announces that 60% of the votes have already been counted, and Candidate B leads A by a margin of 2%. Total electorate size = 2 million, meaning that 1.2 million of the votes have already been counted. There are two other Candidates C and D, who collectively are only going to garner something like 30% of the votes, with 25% going to C and 5% going to D. So, at the point of the news announcement, the breakdown can be presumed to be something very like: A: 34% (408,000) B: 36% (432,000) C: 25% (300,000) D: 5% (60,000) Total: 100% (1.2 million) Let's focus on A and B. Now, with 1.2 million votes already counted, basic statistics will allow a very precise estimate of the ultimate victor (for example, by the techniques detailed in Section 2 of the attachment (I can't link it, for some reason). Cutting out the math (I can show it if desired): The standard error for the difference in proportions between B and A is about 0.074%. That means that the "true" difference between the proportional difference between B and A lies between 1.85% and 2.14% with a 95% probability. This is called a 95% confidence interval. That means that it's 95% probable that B would've beaten A by a margin of at least 1.85% even if an "infinite" number of votes were polled. In fact, the 99.9% confidence interval (1.76% - 2.24%) is still very convincing for a victory for B over A. That means there's less than a one-in-a-thousand chance that B's victory margin over A is going to be below 1.76%. It can really only be called a "wash" (unpredictable result) if the confidence interval of the difference between the polled proportions encompasses zero. That would take more than 26 standard errors. Want to know the probability of that? There are too many zeroes to bother with - to all intents and purposes, it's a statistical "impossibility". In other words, at the point where 60% of the 2 million votes had been counted, and leading by a 2% (in fact, a "2-plus percent") margin, B should've been celebrating with a very strong assurance of ultimate victory. Yet, it was the *reverse* that actually happened in our hypothetical example, and A won. The only way in which such an "upset" could've legitimately happened is if the initial sample of 1.2 million (!) was a biased one (B over A). In other words, if the voting preference of the remaining 40% of the electorate was strongly biased the other way (A over B). This is possible. But considering that this was a national election, and the candidates were widely regarded as "non-partisan", this is hardly probable. I'll leave you to work out the implications of all this on our little hypothetical example. As it turns out, Candidate D in our little story was, coincidentally, a statistician. And Candidate A held a doctorate in Applied Math. I wonder if they found something privately humourous in all this. It later emerged that the margin of victory was quite a bit less than the votes declared invalid. Assuming (naturally) that our hypothetical vote was conducted with the utmost attention to propriety, it seems a little strange that one could declare a "clear victor" with such a narrow margin, such that even minor perturbations in the subjective decision process of deciding which votes were valid could've reversed the result. If nothing else, this should serve as a cautionary tale against keeping the FPTP system, and this is why some other democracies have done away with such a system and adopted something fairer. MOEFranklin.pdf

Taken from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp...1001716/1/.html Posted: 30 August 2009 1934 hrs TOKYO: Japan's opposition Democratic Party won general elections on Sunday in a landslide, ousting the long-ruling conservative party, according to media exit polls just after voting ended. An exit poll by TV Asahi predicted the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) would take 315 seats in the 480-seat lower house, while Tokyo Broadcasting System forecast the centre-left opposition party would win 321 seats. Public broadcaster NHK predicted the DPJ would win between 298 and 329 seats, against a range of just 84 to 131 seats for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Prime Minister Taro Aso. Nippon Television predicted a DPJ total of 324 seats against the LDP's 96. "It's a landslide win. It's a dramatic election," Hiroshi Hoshi, a veteran journalist with the Asahi Shimbun daily, told TV Asahi. The LDP – which has ruled Japan with only one 10-month break since 1955 – had 303 seats in the outgoing parliament to the DPJ's 112. Loud whoops of joy rang through a venue in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district where the DPJ was celebrating. "We have worked desperately to take the government reins and finally received the support of the majority of the people to make it certain now," senior DPJ official Yoshihiko Noda told NHK television. The results suggest the soft-spoken Hatoyama, 62, is on course to take over as prime minister at a time when the world's number two economy is just emerging from recession, but still struggling with record unemployment. Hatoyama, a US-trained engineering scholar and scion of an old political dynasty, campaigned on a promise of change and people-centred politics against the business-friendly LDP, headed by fellow political blueblood Aso. Recalling US President Barack Obama's election victory last year, Hatoyama asked voters in a final campaign speech on Saturday at a Tokyo railway station: "Why can't we do what the United States could do?" "I think we need a change now," agreed one voter, pensioner Toshihiro Nakamura, 68, after casting his ballot on Sunday at a Tokyo elementary school. "It's too long for a single party to dominate national politics." The DPJ already controlled the upper house with the support of smaller parties, including the Social Democrats, frustrating the LDP's agenda in the lower house and leading often to legislative deadlock. Now, the DPJ looks set to take the lower house as well with the numbers to push through legislation. In full-page advertisements published in major dailies on Sunday, the party confidently predicted: "Today, a government change." "A courageous decision by the people will open the door for a historic and major event," it said in another statement. The DPJ has promised better social welfare, which it says would help recession-hit families, boost domestic demand and raise the birth rate to reverse a projected decline of Japan's fast-greying population. In foreign policy, it has signalled a solid but less subservient partnership with traditional ally the United States and a desire to boost its regional ties, promoting a European Union-style Asian community and common currency. As premier, Hatoyama would be expected to attend a UN assembly in New York and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh in September and quickly seek talks with Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and other world leaders. The LDP is credited with guiding Japan through its "economic miracle", but is also blamed for the malaise that set in during the 1990s and for free-market policies seen by many to have widened social inequality. Aso had portrayed the LDP as the safe choice in guarding Japan's security and prosperity, and pointed to stimulus measures that helped to end the recession. But in the end, the changing political tide swamped Aso's party. The prime minister, 68, had dismayed voters with a series of gaffes and policy turnarounds as divisions widened within his party. - AFP/so

May 31, 2008 Chiam fulfils walkway promise made at 2006 polls By Keith Lin Mr Chiam (centre, with garland) walks in the linkway which links Potong Pasir MRT Station and Block 147. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM THE completion of a covered walkway in Potong Pasir marks the fulfillment of a promise Mr Chiam See Tong made during the 2006 General Election. On Saturday, the opposition MP 'opened' the walkway which links the MRT station to the town centre, amid a shower of colourful confetti and a rousing lion dance. Hailing the walkway as proof that the opposition 'will fulfill whatever we promise', he told reporters: 'At the last election, I said I will build this covered linkway, and now this task has been completed. We have done our job.' The project, which costs the town council $250,000, also ended a dispute between Mr Chiam and Mr Sitoh Yih Pin from the People's Action Party, who lost the contest for the ward in 2006 polls. Before the election, Mr Sitoh had installed solar lamps along the pathway - where the walkway now stands - after obtaining lease of the land from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). When some of the lights were vandalised, Mr Sitoh declined to repair them, saying the land's lease was due to expire. Mr Chiam, on the other hand, said it was illegal for his town council to use its funds for the repairs, as the land was not under the council's jurisdiction. http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/...76.html?vgnmr=1 sianz.... my lift upgrading is nowhere in sight... worst then in opposition wards.