GEORGE TOWN, May 10 ― MCA is officially passing on the Bukit Gelugor by-election on May 25, despite having held the seat up until in Election 2004.

The announcement also comes just hours after DAP announced Ramkarpal Singh Deo, the late Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh’s third son, as the candidate for the by-election.

“We have decided not to contest in the by-election as we believe we need to fully concentrate on the constitutional crisis triggered by PAS over hudud,” MCA secretary-general Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said in a press conference at the Penang MCA headquarters here today.

He said the decision was arrived at after an emergency presidential council meeting in Ipoh at 10am this morning.

He said the party needed to concentrate on its efforts to prevent a constitutional crisis via the PAS bid to enforce the Islamic penal code in Kelantan.

“We hope voters will support and understand MCA’s decision and although we will not contest, we will continue to serve the people here,” he said.

He added that MCA has discussed its decision with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, whom he said accepted their decision.

Ong said Najib, who is also BN chairman, had asked MCA for an evaluation of the positive takeaways from contesting the seat.

“We tried very hard but we still feel we could not find any positive factor to turn around the possible outcome, but that doesn’t mean we are avoiding out responsibility by not standing,” he said.

He said that contesting would have seen the party’s resources focused on the by-election, preventing it from concentrating on the fight against PAS’s proposed private members’ bills.

MCA’s decision today means no BN party will contest the poll. The coalition is also not officially endorsing any of the independents that will be in the running.

The Bukit Gelugor seat fell vacant after Karpal was killed in a car crash last month.

Two independent candidates and two parties have voiced their interests to contest in the by-election so it will still be a multi-corner fight for the parliamentary seat.

PAS member Mohd Nabi Bux Mohd Abd Sathar, Mohamed Yacoob Mohamed Noor, who is more commonly known as “Yaacob Bebas”, Parti Cinta Malaysia vice president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan and newly formed Penang Front Party will be contesting in the by-election to go up against DAP.

Karpal first won the seat traditionally held by MCA in Election 2004, before going on to win by 21,015 votes in 2008 and 42,706 votes in 2013 against MCA.