Selangor MB announces state public holiday on Nov 18

Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari has declared Nov 18 - the eve of the 15th general election - a state public holiday.

At a press conference today, he said this is to allow people from other states working in Selangor to go back to their hometowns to vote.

Amirudin further urged caretaker prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to declare a nationwide public holiday on the same day, to encourage all Malaysians voting in their hometowns to cast their ballots on Nov 19. 

The state executive council today made the decision to declare the public holiday and it will be gazetted by next week, he said.

"If the federal (government) decides to do it (announce public holiday on Nov 18), and there is an overlap, we can withdraw our gazette.

"It depends, but let Selangor be the first (state) to start the initiative, as an encouragement for the other states and the federal government," the PKR lawmaker said, adding the initiative will benefit everyone.

Amirudin stressed that the state government has the power to declare any day as a public holiday, as it sees fit.

The state public holiday initiative would apply to the private sector as well, he noted.

Following Selangor’s initiative, the Negeri Sembilan state government also announced a public holiday on Nov 18.

Selangor to provide 20 feeder buses

On another matter, Amirudin announced that the state government will provide 20 units of Smart Selangor buses to alleviate the suffering of commuters affected by the shutdown of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) services.

"The state government is ready or will discuss with RapidKL to provide 20 units of Smart Selangor buses from tomorrow, Nov 10.

“These buses will have to be synchronised with RapidKL's buses as we don't want overlaps to happen.

"We will try to maximise the use of these 20 buses in the 160 existing routes, in collaboration with RapidKL," he said.

It was reported that the LRT service between Kelana Jaya and Ampang Park stations will be closed for a week starting today.

Explaining the suspension, Prasarana, which operates the service, said that it was due to a recurring and unprecedented breakdown in its signalling system, which rendered the control centre unable to track the train's location.

The disruption has reportedly caused the traffic conditions in the Klang Valley to worsen, as many have to start driving to work.

In response, PKR Communications director Lee Chean Chung demanded the resignation of Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd's chief executive officer (CEO) Amir Hamdan over the recent halt in operations.

Former transport minister Anthony Loke also weighed in on the matter, saying that if Pakatan Harapan wins GE15, it would take immediate steps to rectify the technical problems with the LRT system.

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