The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition won Perak in the 2008 general election. Although the Democratic Action Party (DAP) had won the most seats of the opposition parties, Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) was appointed "Menteri Besar" of the state. This happened because the state constitution states that the "Menteri Besar" must be a Muslim, unless the Sultan specially appoints a non-Muslim to the office. As the DAP did not have any Muslim assemblymen in Perak at that time, the "Menteri Besar" had to come from one of its two allied parties, the People's Justice Party (PKR) or the PAS. However, the national ruling party, Barisan Nasional (BN), gained control over the state government administration when three PR assemblymen, Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang), Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang), and Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu (Changkat Jering) defected to the BN as independent assemblymen during the crisis, on 3 February 2009. A statement from the office of the Sultan of Perak urged the PR "Menteri Besar" to resign, but also refused to dissolve the State Legislative Assembly, which would have triggered new elections. Amid multiple protests, lawsuits and arrests, a new BN-led Assembly was sworn in on 7 May. The takeover was then ruled illegal by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, on 11 May 2009, restoring power to the PR. The following day, the Court of Appeal of Malaysia suspended the High Court ruling pending a new Court of Appeal judgment. On 22 May 2009, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court's decision and returned power to the BN. Many opposition party supporters believed that the crisis was effectively a "power grab", in which the democratically elected government was ousted through the political machinations of the more dominant national ruling party.