‘UNITY GOVT HAS SEVERAL POTENTIAL NAMES’
Shortlist presented to PM, plan is to field individual who will represent unity govt, says Saifuddin
THE unity government has several potential candidates for the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election slated for May 11. Pakatan Harapan secretarygeneral Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the list of names was to be presented to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yesterday at the unity government consultative council meeting.
He, however, declined to reveal the number of potential candidates.
“We want the candidate’s identity to represent the unity government, not a particular party.
“If we field a candidate representing the unity government, it could foster a stronger sense of joint responsibility which would encourage a stronger machinery.
“We want to bring victory to the unity government,” he told reporters on Tuesday night.
Saifuddin said this after chairing the unity government secretariat meeting at the World Trade Centre here to discuss preparations for the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-elections.
Also present were unity government secretariat chief Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin and Umno working committee member Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan.
Others included PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil, Parti Amanah Negara secretary-general Muhammad Faiz Fadzil and DAP national organising secretary Steven Sim.
Saifuddin said the meeting also finalised the individual in charge of coordinating the unity government’s by-election machinery and discussed the preparation of strategy and the use of data.
He added that the meeting looked into all the voting trends in the 16 districts of the constituency as well.
“We have reached several decisions, including naming individuals responsible for running the campaign machinery in addition to coordinating national and state-level issues.
“We have studied the profile of the area, the percentage of Malay, Chinese, Indian and other voters.
“We also looked at income, level of education and whether they are working in the government or private sector,” he said.
The by-election is being held following the death of its threeterm assemblywoman Lee Kee Hiong from DAP.
Lee died on March 21 after a battle with cancer.
Nomination will be held on April 27 and early voting is set for May 7.