Anwar gets ready for PD
President-elect said to have settled on PD parliamentary seat
There is no official announcement yet but Negri Sembilan PKR is going the whole nine yards to ensure a victory for party president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Port Dickson if he contests in a by-election there. The man himself has voiced his confidence about getting the backing of people in the constituency. As for its rival Umno, its only message is: ‘Bring him on.’
SEREMBAN: Negri Sembilan PKR members are ready for battle to ensure that their president-elect Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wins comfortably in a soon-to-be-held byelection.
He is said to have settled on the Port Dickson parliamentary seat although several states have offered places for him to pick.
Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar and PKR chief Aminuddin Harun said the party’s machinery was ready to be mobilised anytime for a by-election, although they had not been officially told about Anwar contesting in Port Dickson.
“We welcome him with open arms. I already have strategies to ensure that we retain the seat with a handsome majority,” he said yesterday.
Aminuddin, however, urged the people to be patient and wait for the official announcement.
“If it is true that he (Anwar) will be standing in Port Dickson, then the people of Negri Sembilan would consider ourselves privileged to have him contest in our state,” he said.
Aminuddin, who is a third-term Sikamat assemblyman, said Anwar did not say anything about his plans to contest in Port Dickson during his visit to Tampin on Sunday.
But during a meeting with PKR members in Tampin on the same day, Anwar did openly state that he had three seats to chose from in his bid to return to Parliament – one each in the north, central and south- ern regions of the peninsula.
The former Permatang Pauh lawmaker then jokingly asked the crowd whether they would support him if he decided to contest in Negri Sembilan.
The crowd endorsed his words with a rousing round of applause.
Anwar also said he was confident of gaining support from the people of Negri Sembilan, as many had travelled all the way north to back him during campaigning in the Permatang Pauh by-election in 2008.
In the May 9 general election, PKR’s Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah won the Port Dickson seat with a 17,710-vote majority.
The first-term PKR candidate defeated Barisan Nasional’s Datuk V.S. Mogan and PAS’ Mahfuz Roslan in a three-cornered fight.
Teluk Kemang PKR chief Chai Tong Chai said it would be better for Anwar to announce his choice of seat after the party polls next month.
“We welcome our president-elect to Port Dickson, but I personally feel that it would be better if he announces this after the party polls,” Chai said.
The Port Dickson parliamentary constituency was known as Teluk Kemang prior to the redelineation exercise held before the 14th General Election.
State PKR deputy chief and thirdterm Seri Tanjung assemblyman M. Ravi said the state would obey a party decision and start working for the by-election.
“But I must say that we have not been told anything about this,” said Ravi, who is also Deputy Speaker of the state assembly.
The Port Dickson parliamentary constituency has five state seats: Chuah, Lukut, Bagan Pinang, Linggi and Seri Tanjung.
Known as the “army town” as it houses several army camps, Malays make up the majority or 42.72% of the 75,381 voters, followed by Chinese (33.11%) and Indians (21.97%).
The seat had been a Barisan Nasional stronghold until the 2008 polls and traditionally contested by the MIC.