‘No govt facilities, machinery for my campaign in PD’
PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan’s ( PH) candidate for the Port Dickson ( PD) by- election Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has stressed that no government facilities and machinery should be used for his campaign during the election.
The PKR president- elect said this is important to signal to the rakyat ( people) that PH contests elections in a clean and transparent manner.
“We have deputy prime minister ( Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail), Economic Affairs Minister ( Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali), Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister ( Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail), several other ministers and deputy ministers from our party and I have made it very clear that I do not want any government facilities or machinery to be used in the by- election.
“In fact, I was informed by Saifuddin that there is a programme organised much earlier by his ministry which falls during the campaign period.
“But then they have decided to postpone the programme because we do not want to be seen using government facilities for campaigning and that’s is an important signal to the people,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
Anwar was yesterday officially announced as PH’s candidate for the by- election, polling of which is on Oct 13.
The announcement was made by outgoing PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Anwar’s wife, at the same press conference, which was also attended by Mohamed Azmin, who is also PKR deputy president, and Rafizi Ramli, his challenger for the number two post in the party in this year’s elections.
Elaborating more on the byelection, Anwar said PH will not take it lightly even though the Port Dickson constituency is considered by many as a PKR stronghold.
“We have to appeal to the voters, we must explain our position, we must get their support,” he said.
Asked on Umno stalwart Datuk Seri Mohamad Nazri Abdul Aziz’s support for him in the by- election, Anwar said he appreciated the gesture from the Padang Rengas MP.
He said that as a candidate he did want to be seen as arrogant, that is rejecting support from others including from the opposition.
Nomination is on Sept 29. Incumbent Port Dickson MP Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, from PKR, has vacated the seat to give way to Anwar who is slated to succeed Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Malaysia’s eighth prime minister. — Bernama