Pakatan to meet as PKR picks Dr Wan Azizah for Permatang Pauh
(Malay Mail Online) – Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders will meet this week to officially endorse Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s candidacy for the Permatang Pauh by-election triggered by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s disqualification as MP last month.
PKR leaders told Malay Mail Online that the party’s pick for the Permatang Pauh seat has been decided, confirming rumours that Dr Wan Azizah would likely be fielded as she is an agreeable choice to be federal opposition leader to all three PR parties.
“It was an unanimous decision (on Dr Wan Azizah as Permatang Pauh candidate),” one PKR official spoke to Malay Mail Online on condition of anonymity.
“But no official announcement will be made until PR convenes and DAP and PAS are given a chance to state whether they endorse Dr Wan Azizah’s candidacy,” the source added.
Another PKR leader told Malay Mail Online that “there were no other candidates” besides Dr Wan Azizah for the federal seat.
PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli did not confirm or deny Dr Wan Azizah candidacy, but said that PR will convene a leadership meeting sometime this week.
“I cannot comment yet on who PKR has officially picked, but yes, we have decided on our candidate.
“I am trying to get Pakatan leaders to meet this week to discuss Permatang Pauh,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Admitting that it may be challenging to get PR’s presidential council to meet as DAP has cut off all ties with PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, Rafizi said an alternative would be to get the pact’s secretariat council to meet and deliberate the matter instead.
“We may have a difficulty getting them (PR presidential council) to sit down, so most probably Pakatan Rakyat’s secretariat council will meet instead,” the Pandan MP explained.
DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke confirmed that PR’s secretariat council will meet this week to discuss on PKR’s pick for Permatang Pauh.
“Rafizi had asked me for a meeting, no date has been set yet but probably in the next few days,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
The Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat fell vacant after Anwar was disqualified when his petition for a royal pardon for his conviction was rejected by the Pardons Board.
He was jailed five years on February 10 when his appeal to the Federal Court against his sodomy conviction was dismissed.
Permatang Pauh is a PR stronghold with PKR holding the seat for 17 years since Anwar’s first incarceration in 1998.
The Election Commission (EC) has fixed April 25 for nominations and May 7 for polling.
