PKR in state of confusion over Selangor palace’s response

(The Star) – PKR seems to be in a muddle over the Selangor palace’s response to its choice of candidates for the mentri besar’s post.

The party issued a statement claiming that the palace did not reject party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s candidacy as mentri besar last night but retracted it 20 minutes later.

Party-secretary general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail sent out the statement at 9.30pm but party communications director Fahmi Fadzil called the media later to say it had been retracted.

When contacted, Saifuddin said the statement was retracted because “certain information” in the release needed to be changed and that a fresh statement would only be sent out today.

The original statement by PKR was supposed to be in response to a letter from the palace reminding the party to submit more than two names for the Sultan to consider.

The letter also thanked the palace for acknowledging that it had received a letter dated Sept 1 nominating Dr Wan Azizah as the mentri besar candidate.

Saifuddin had said in the first statement that, based on his understanding of the letter from the palace, there was no rejection of Dr Wan Azizah’s name as a candidate.

When contacted earlier, DAP and PAS officials were non-committal about receiving a response from the palace on their letters, with Selangor DAP chairman Tony Pua saying he “had no clue”.

PAS, which submitted two names, said it had yet to receive a response from the palace as it only submitted its nominations yesterday.

“If we receive a letter from the palace, the central committee will discuss it,” said PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kayat.

Last week, the Selangor palace issued a letter to PAS, PKR and DAP respectively, following Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah’s decree for the parties to submit more than two names for the mentri besar post.

The parties had been given until yesterday to hand over the names.