‘Seat for Anwar must have good voter representation’

KLANG: There has been intense speculation on where PKR president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will contest a by-election to enter Parliament.

The seats mentioned were indeed discussed within selected groups of loyalists, who were entrusted with the responsibility of crafting an action plan to get Anwar elected as an MP.

Party sources said many issues were taken into consideration before the final decision was made.

“Some of the seats that were offered belonged to three-term MPs who are division chiefs with strong grassroots support.

“There were also seats that had incumbents who were young and hardworking,” a source said.

They said it was ascertained that the chosen constituency must have voter representation to portray Anwar being accepted by the Malays as well as non-Malays.

“So, the ideal constituency for Anwar must have about 60% Malay voters and 40% non-Malay voters,” said a source.

Selayang MP William Leong concurred that the constituency for Anwar to contest must be “well mixed” as he would be representing all races as the nation’s incoming prime minister.

“This is also important to us as PKR is a multiracial party and we want to break the practice of a Malay candidate contesting in a Malay-majority seat,” said Leong, who was the first to offer his seat to Anwar.

After much deliberation, the party finally shortlisted the Sungai Petani, Alor Setar and Port Dickson parliamentary seats for Anwar to choose.

It is said that Anwar will be contesting in Port Dickson, with its incumbent MP Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah (pic) expected to quit to make way for a by-election.

Former naval officer Danyal is new to Port Dickson and has no grassroots support in his constituency or as a PKR elected representative.

Danyal said that although he had been supporting PKR since 2008, it was only recently that he officially became a member, meaning that he is fairly unknown within the PKR fold.

He had said that contesting in Port Dickson had also been an 11th hour decision.

“I was actually asked to contest in Tambun (Perak) at first,” said Danyal, 68, who is also a former vice-president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia.

He was roped in to contest in Port Dickson 24 hours before Nomination Day to replace fellow PKR member Rosman Jonet, who was penalised by the Election Commission for not submitting a report on his spending when he contested the Linggi state seat in 2013.

When contacted, Alor Setar MP Chan Ming Kai said various factors had to be taken into consideration before deciding where Anwar should contest.

“It must first be ensured that the outcome and voter turnout will be good because this will directly impact the morale of PKR members,” said Chan.

He said the seat must also be fairly mixed because Anwar is a leader for all races.

“The voter turnout must also be better than the recent turnout in the Selangor by-elections,” said Chan, adding that Negri Sembilan had the potential to become a PKR stronghold like Selangor.

Universiti Sains Malaysia political analyst Prof Dr Sivamurugan Pandian agreed, saying that the seat for Anwar to contest as prime minister-designate should represent the national ethnic demography.

“Port Dickson seems to have the right racial composition, but the party must explain why the constituency was selected when making the announcement,” said Dr Sivamurugan.

At an event in Port Dickson late yesterday, Danyal declined to confirm if he would make way for Anwar to contest his parliamentary seat.

“Please wait ... all will be made known tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said when met at the event at Sengkang Estate.

Talk is rife that Danyal would become Anwar’s coordinator in the constituency if the latter does indeed contest and win the Port Dickson by-election.