PSM: No three-cornered fights, please
PSM would be meeting PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim by this Sunday to settle the issue over the seats that it is contesting in Selangor.
K Pragalath, FMT
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) wants PKR to come to its senses and avoid any three-cornered fights. PSM maintains that if this happens, the only winner will be Barisan Nasional.
The “troublesome” seats are Kota Damansara and Semenyih state seats in Selangor and Jelapang state seat and Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in Perak.
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to meet PSM on Sunday. The PKR list of candidates for Selangor will be announced on Sunday.
Kota Damansara seat is held by PSM chairman Nasir Hashim. PSM secretary-general, S Arutchelvan, wants to contest in Semenyih.
“We are supposed to meet Anwar by this Sunday to resolve this issue. We hope to come to some sort of compromise to avoid a three-cornered fight,” said Arutchelvan.
On Sunday night, Anwar would be announcing PKR’s candidates list for Selangor in an event that would take place in Hulu Klang.
The issue over the two seats was raised because PKR wants to field its candidates in both the seats.
Last week, Arutchelvan confirmed that he would be contesting in Semenyih amidst attempts by a Serdang PKR leader Hamidi Hasan to go for the semi-urban seat located in Hulu Selangor parliamentary constituency.
Selangor PKR wants to field its own candidate in the two seats because PSM had contested under PKR’s banner in the last election held in 2008.
“In the last election, they [PSM] contested under PKR’s ticket, and they used our banner. However, I don’t have the authority to make the decision or announcement.
“I will let Anwar make the announcement this Sunday,” said Batu Caves state assemblyman Amirudin Shari of PKR at the party headquarters today.
Arutchelvan also said that in the event a three-cornered battle is unavoidable, the two states seats and Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in Perak would fall to BN.
“Why allow BN to take over the seat when PSM is Pakatan-friendly? Our common goal is to take over federal government,” he said and confirmed that PSM would back Pakatan in all the state and parliamentary seats in the event of a three-cornered fight.
Best candidate
PSM is contesting a total of four seats in the GE13. Apart from the three, the party is also fielding its deputy chairman M Sarasvathy for the Jelapang state seat in Perak.
During GE12 held in 2008, PSM won the Kota Damansara and Sungai Siput seat respectively.
Arutchelvan also expressed confidence that Jelapang would remain in the hands of Pakatan even if there was a three-cornered fight involving DAP, MCA and PSM.
