Why deny Parliament dissolution?

Read this:

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has just announced the dissolution of Parliament at 12:34pm at the Prime Minister's Department in Putrajaya. The announcement paves the way for the 12th general elections.

I'm not much of a political watcher, but I've got a different sort of question here. What's the PR strategy behind denying that you're going to call for elections in the newspapers (read this)? I'm not understanding why people need to be sneaky about things like this for what - couple of hours headstart in preparing for campaigning? Won't being direct, forthcoming and truthful make a bigger impact?