DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced today that the decision had been made because of the disagreement of its Pakatan Harapan coalition partner PKR and in view of his party’s undertaking not to pursue the matter unilaterally without a consensus of all three parties.

Parti Amanah Negara has already announced it would support the DAP’s proposal for the elections.

“The decision was made following quick consultation with party leaders and the Penang state leadership after PKR deputy president Azmin Ali informed me yesterday that the PKR leadership did not agree with having early polls,” said Lim at a press conference at his office here today.

Lim, who is chief minister of Penang, has been charged with two counts of corruption relating to the conversion of a plot of land and the purchase of a bungalow below market value. He is expected to face trial in November.

Lim revealed that during a meeting with senior PKR national leaders on July 20, a proposal was made for the DAP to give to PKR one or two of its existing seats in Penang so that the election proposal would be more acceptable to the PKR leadership.

“However, we stated that this was not feasible,” Lim said.

The DAP had said earlier this month that it wished to seek early state elections in a departure from the long-standing practice of holding state elections in tandem with parliamentary general elections, which are not due till mid-2018.