KUANTAN: PKR vice president Tian Chua was not involved in the discussion pertaining to vacating a parliamentary seat to pave the way for the party's incoming president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to contest in.
Tian Chua earlier claimed that the announcement made by the party's deputy president hopeful Rafizi Ramli that PKR will soon reveal which seat is to be vacated for Anwar, was done without the knowledge of party leadership.
Commenting on this, Rafizi said this was the personal opinion of the former Batu MP.
"Not everything in PKR we inform him (Tian Chua)... that is his personal opinion and I respect it. If you want to ask me about his comment, I am not sure why Tian Chua made that statement.
"With regard to this decision (vacating a parliamentary seat), maybe Tian Chua as vice president felt awkward that he was not directly involved in the discussion... I admit, there are things that we involve all party leaders, and there are things discussed between Anwar, Wan Azizah (outgoing PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail) and myself," Rafizi added.
Meanwhile, Rafizi said many factors have been considered before taking the decision to vacate a parliamentary seat for Anwar to contest.
Speaking to the media after attending PKR's 20 years of reformation event at the Dagangan Mahkota Complex, near here, last night, Rafizi claimed that eventhough voter turnout at the recent three by-elections was low, it does not reflect the rakyat's overall mood.
"Yes when we look at the percentage (voter turnout) of the Sungai Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong by-elections, they were very low and maybe there will be some form of impact if we have another one (by-election).
"However, this is a decision agreed by all, including Datuk Seri Wan Azizah and the incumbent of that parliamentary seat...the plan (to vacate the seat) was made before the 14th General Election (GE14) and the individual involved was already aware of this.
"Although we see the mood of the rakyat at the moment is not the same as it was during GE14, PKR has a reason why it wants to expedite the process (of vacating a seat) and among the factor is that this decision is made to ensure the reformation process of the parliamentary institution can be carried out effectively," he said.
The voter turnout for the Sungai Kandis election was at 50.31 percent. As for the Seri Setia by-election last Saturday, voter turnout was even lower, at 44.1 percent.
As for Balakong, where the by-election also took place on the same day as Seri Setia, the Election Commission (EC) announced a record low turnout of 43 percent.
Rafizi added that an announcement as to which seat will be vacated will be made this week and called for all quarters to be patient.
"If I can, I want to announce it now... but, it has been agreed by the leadership so we wait.. in a day or two it will be announced by Datuk Seri Wan Azizah," he said.