Pakatan logo to make its electoral debut in Balakong

KAJANG: When DAP’s Wong Siew Ki starts campaigning for the Balakong state by-election, she will be one of two Pakatan Harapan candidates to contest under the coalition’s logo for the first time.

The Election Commission will be holding the Balakong and Seri Setia by-elections concurrently with the nomination on Aug 18 and polling on Sept 8.

“This will be the first time that Pakatan will be able to use its official logo on the ballot paper,” said Wong during her visit to the new N27 Balakong by-election opera- tions centre in Cheras Traders Square yesterday.

“I will do my best for the constituency, so I hope the people of Balakong will continue to support us,” she added.

Wong, 32, a Subang Jaya municipal councillor, will be pitted against MCA’s Tan Chee Teong, 40, a local boy who runs a hardware store.

DAP has picked Wong over other shortlisted candidates that include Kajang councillor Khoo Khim Han and former broadcast journalist Yunna Tan, who congratulated Wong on Facebook.

Khoo will be helping Wong as the election agent as part of the Balakong by-election committee headed by Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah.

Others in the committee are new assemblymen such as Teratai’s Bryan Lai, Dusun Tua’s Edry Faizal and Bandar Utama’s Jamaliah Jamaluddin.

Ean Yong said DAP secretarygeneral Lim Guan Eng will launch the operations centre tonight and urged the voters to come out and show their support.

The Balakong by-election comes after the death of DAP’s Eddie Ng Tien Chee, who was killed in a road accident on July 20.

For the 14th General Election, Pakatan candidates contested under the PKR logo in the peninsula after it failed to get the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to approve its application as a coalition.

DAP, however, had no issue contesting under its own flag in Sabah and Sarawak.

Although Pakatan was officially registered on May 16, the coalition still maintained the PKR logo in the Aug 4 by-election in Sungai Kandis.

The state seat was retained by Pakatan through PKR’s Zawawi Ahmad Mughni.

Pakatan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said then it was “too soon” to contest using its own logo in Sungai Kandis although the coalition had received formal recognition from the RoS.

He added that there was not enough time to familiarise the people with the Pakatan logo, which has the coalition name in white on a red background, with the middle “A” in “Harapan” stylised as a chevron.