PELABUHAN KLANG: PKR vice-president Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin said the party polls, scheduled from Sept 14 until Oct 30, should be postponed to focus on the Port Dickson by-election, which its president Datuk Anwar Ibrahim would be contesting.
He said PKR central election committee should consider the suggestion as its top leadership and hundreds of thousands of party members would be involved with the party elections that might affect the by-election campaign.
“In my opinion, the by-election should be a priority as it would see Datuk Seri Anwar (Ibrahim) making a comeback after being denied the right to contest for a long time.
“PKR election committee should relook the matter and postpone the party elections (to a date) after the by-election ends,” said Shamsul Iskandar, who is Primary Industries deputy minister, in a Press conference after attending the Bio-diesel 10 (B10) initiative launch at Felda Transport Services Sdn Bhd here today.
Also present were Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh and Global Ventures Holdings (FGV) chief executive officer Datuk Zakaria Arshad.
Commenting on the matter further, Shamsul Iskandar said focus should be given to Port Dickson parliamentary seat by-election to ensure that Anwar could win with a huge majority.
“Of course, our challenges would be to ensure the constituents come out and vote on the polling day, as well as increasing the number of majority won by PKR candidate in the 14th General Election (14th GE).
“During GE14, former seat incumbent (Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah) won with a majority of 17,710 votes,” he said.
When asked to comment on allegations by several opposition leaders that the act of vacating the seat as a waste of the country’s funds, Shamsul Iskandar said the opposition should not field a candidate in the by-election if they felt that it was a waste.
PKR central election committee chairman Datuk Rashid Din had said
the party polls would involve 218 branches and some 800,000 members who are eligible to vote.