PAN to discipline Sungai Besar rebels

(MMO) – Parti Amanah Negara (PAN) said today it will take action against a small group of malcontents who have openly backed the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the Sungai Besar by-election.

Party secretary-general Anuar Tahir said the dissenters would be referred toPAN’s supreme council.

“I will bring this to the supreme council to determine their status. They have done something that goes against the discipline of the party.

“They don’t want to support the PAN candidate here, but don’t want to leave the party. This is contradictory,” he told a press conference here.

Last night, a small group of six Sungai Besar PAN members declared their intent to campaign for the BN candidate Budiman Mohd Zohdi instead of their own, Azhar Shukur.

The group spokesman Mohd Sapigni Tulus claimed to represent over 32 and said they were disappointed with their party leadership’s decision to “parachute” non-local Azhar into the Selangor parliamentary seat for the June 18 by-election.

Anuar defended the PAN leadership’s pick of Azhar for the by-election, insisting that the latter was suitable even if he doesn’t live in Sungai Besar.

“Azhar is the division chief here so obviously he would be the best choice. It’s not right to say we took a parachute candidate,” Anuar said.

The Sungai Besar federal constituency has 42,836 voters comprising 22,227 Malays votes, 13,142 Chinese, and 820 Indians with 98 from other races, according to statistics from the Election Commission.

The fight for Sungai Besar involves PAN’s Azhar, BN’s Budiman and PAS’s Dr Rani Osman.