I am eligible to contest, says Wan Azizah

Speculations are rife that she will be fielded in either Shah Alam parliamentary or Sementa state constituencies.

(FMT) – SHAH ALAM: PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who ruled herself out of contesting a parliamentary seat for five years from July 2008 said that she is now eligible to contest a state seat in the 13th general election.

Wan Azizah had resigned as Permatang Pauh MP to give way to her husband Anwar Ibrahim’s return to active politics.

She said the matter had been discussed informally, but added that she was focusing more now on campaigning for the party.

Wan Azizah was asked about talk that she would contest one of the state seats in the Shah Alam parliamentary constituency or the Sementa state seat in Selangor in the soon to be called general election.

She had won the Permatang Pauh seat in Penang in the 2008 general election but resigned as the MP on July 31, 2008, to enable Anwar to contest and win the seat in a by-election on Aug 26 of that year.

Wan Azizah spoke to reporters yesterday after handing over a Selangor government donation of RM20,000 to each of the families of the security forces personnel slain during the terrorist intrusion in Lahad Datu, Sabah.

Earlier, Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim denied that the state legislative assembly had not been dissolved for elections thus far because certain quarters did not concur in the matter.

It was a party strategy, he said after launching an application system at the Selangor Land and Mines Office.

Last Tuesday, Abdul Khalid had announced that the Selangor legislative assembly would be dissolved on April 22.

He had earlier said that the dissolution would be after the “Chap Goh Meh” celebration at the end of last February.