PD by-election getting more and more exciting

PORT DICKSON: The Port Dickson by- election is getting more and more exciting.

With the once mighty Umno-led Barisan Nasional ( BN) deciding to ‘ boycott’ it, one might think Pakatan Harapan candidate PKR president- elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would ‘breeze through’.

But with nomination less than 24 hours to go, PAS which initially had second thoughts about fielding a candidate, has joined the fray.

The party has picked Royal Malaysian Air Force veteran Lt Col ( Rtd) Mohd Nazari Mokhtar as its its candidate and with social media personality Stevie Chan Kim Leong already having announced that he will be standing as an independent, the contest appeared to be going to be a threecornered fight.

Then former Umno warlord Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, who is also a former Negeri Sembilan menteri besar, on Thursday dropped a bombshell that he will also be contesting as an independent.

He also announced that he had quit Umno.

Add to the mix, Parti Rakyat Malaysia ( PRM) which was the first party to announce that it will be contesting the seat but has yet to confirm its position, while former Senator Datuk Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, who is also a former aide of Anwar, yesterday was reported as saying that he was “under pressure from old friends to take on the boss”.

There are also rumours that former Selangor menteri besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim will also throw his hat in the ring.

So all eyes will be on the nomination process at Dewan Majlis Perbandaran Port Dickson ( MPPD) today to see how many cornered fight the by- election is going to be . Polling is on Oct 13. The incumbent Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, 68 , from PKR, vacated the seat to pave the way for Anwar to make a comeback to Parliament.