Malaysian elections set for early March

(CNN) - Malaysia will hold general elections on March 8 the country's Election Commission announced on Thursday - a day after the king dissolved parliament.

Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman made the

announcement in Putrajaya, according to the Malaysian National News Agency.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a news

conference that he had asked for the dissolution of the nation's 11th

parliament since its independence in 1957. The southeast Asian country is a

constitutional monarchy.

The prime minister's term was scheduled to expire in June 2009.

Parliament would have been dissolved and new elections held then had he not

asked the king to take action Wednesday, said Baradan Kuppusamy, a journalist

who has covered numerous elections in Malaysia.