PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan has agreed to field candidates for the upcoming Rantau and Cameron Highlands by-elections based on the same component parties that had contested in the last general election.
PH chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the decision was made by the coalition's Presidential Council today.
In the 14th General Election in May, DAP contested for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat while PKR contested for Rantau state seat.
Dr Mahathir, who is also Prime Minister, said the parties involved are also be given the freedom to pick their respective candidates before submitting the names to the Presidential Council for approval.
“We agree that the candidates for the two by-elections will be from the parties that previously placed their candidates there (during GE14).
“However, no one has been selected and we give it to the parties concerned to determine who they want and then we (Presidencial Council) will consider," he said, after chairing the meeting here today.
This time, he added, PH logo will be used to represent the coalition instead of PKR's logo previously.
In Rantau, PKR had fielded Dr S Streram as candidate while M. Manogaran represented DAP in Cameron Highlands.
The Rantau seat was won unopposed by its incumbent Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, after Streram was not allowed into the nomination centre for not having an election pass.
However, on Nov 16, Seremban High Court ruled the victory null and void, following Dr Streram's petition on May 23.
As for the Cameron Highlands parliamentary seat won by Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk C. Sivarraajh, the Election Court, on Nov 30, declared the outcome there as null and void, after finding elements of corruption.