Three named for Sg Kandis

Azmin: State political bureau to discuss candidates issue

SHAH ALAM: Three PKR members have been identified as potential candidates for the Sungai Kandis by-election on Aug 4, says Selangor PKR chief Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

The names would be forwarded to the party’s top leadership after initial preliminaries have been completed, he said.

“The state political bureau will meet first and discuss the matter and the names will be submitted to the party at the national level,” Azmin told reporters at state holding company Mentri Besar Incorporated’s Hari Raya open house here yesterday.

The Sungai Kandis seat fell vacant after incumbent Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei died of cancer on July 2.

Azmin said the Pakatan Harapan team was already on the ground in Sungai Kandis to meet the people pending the by-election.

“With the performance of the late Shuhaimi, I believe PKR and PH will be able to retain the seat,” said Azmin, who is also Economic Affairs Minister.

Meanwhile, Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari told reporters at the same event that the state PKR leadership had already received the necessary feedback on the candidates from the Kota Raja division as well as the constituency’s grassroots.

He said there were new as well as seasoned politicians on the three-name list.

Party sources say former Kota Anggerik assemblyman Yaakob Sapari and former PKR Kota Damansara coordinator Mohd Razlan Jalaluddin are among the candidates.

“Mohd Razlan had worked very hard in Kota Damansara which fell to Barisan Nasional in the 2013 general election.

“He was supposed to get a seat but was not selected at the eleventh hour to contest in the recent general election,” said a source.

Yaakob won the Kota Angerrik seat in the 2008 and 2013 elections and was a state executive councillor during the 2008 term under the then Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

He was however dropped from the PKR candidate list for the 14th General Election.

Mat Shuhaimi, who was Azmin’s political secretary, won the Sungai Kandis state seat in the last election with a 12,480-vote majority.

He received 23,998 votes against Barisan’s Datuk Kamaruzzaman Johari’s 11,518, PAS’ Mohd Yusof Abdullah’s 7,573 and Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s (PRM) Hanafiah Husin’s 76 votes.