Sources: Azmin put up for Selangor MB post in 2013

By admin-s On Sep 1, 2014

(MMO) – Azmin Ali had been nominated to be mentri besar after the 2013 general election, sources have said, despite repeated assertions by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) that Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was the sole candidate from the pact.

Malay Mail Online understands that Azmin’s name was submitted by PKR Batu Caves assemblyman Amirudin Shaari to the Selangor palace and that PR leaders only found out about it when they were nominating Khalid.

Sources familiar with the matter said that Amirudin was then censured by PKR for sending in a separate nomination.

“Khalid was informed by the palace back then that there was another name (candidate). Khalid was shown a letter from Amirudin Shaari who at the time had nominated Azmin,” a senior PKR leader told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“The letter was submitted so clandestinely… that is why Khalid can come out and say that there was a separate nomination for the MB post,” the PKR man added.

Last week, Khalid disputed PKR and DAP’s claim that he had been their sole candidate to be mentri besar following the previous two general elections, saying that “separate” nominations had been sent to the Selangor palace then.

“There is no ‘one name’. More than one name submitted in addition to my name… separate applications,” MB Khalid said after the two parties insisted on only submitting a single nominee despite the Selangor Sultan’s request for at least three candidates.

Khalid also said he will ask the Selangor palace for permission to release the identities of all previous PR nominees submitted for the mentri besar’s post.

A source close to the outgoing MB also confirmed the matter, saying that Azmin’s name was put up back in 2013.