PERMATANG PAUH, April 14 — PKR has already decided on its candidate for the Permatang Pauh poll, the party vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar confirmed tonight.
The Lembah Pantai MP said the party will reveal the identity of the candidate before their political rival, Barisan Nasional (BN), reveals their candidate on April 23.
“The party will definitely reveal the candidate soon, the plan was to reveal it before BN,” she told reporters after meeting with party grassroots members at Tepian Padang in Kampung Pertama here together with her younger sister Nurul Iman Anwar.
She added that not many were shortlisted as possible candidates for the by-election this May 7.
“From certain viewpoints, our choice is very clear but I would say our biggest challenge is to find a balance between what’s acceptable within our party and by the voters,” she said.
She admitted that her party was concerned over the possibility if a lower voter turnout as the by-election is held on a weekday.
Nurul Izzah also noted that many voters were likely tired of by-elections by now so the candidate would have to work hard to convince them to come out and vote on May 7.
She rubbished BN’s claim that Permatang Pauh has not seen much development in the past 17 years under PKR, saying the party was more concerned about sustainable development instead of the “twin towers type of development”.
“Let our work here speak for ourselves as we have been looking at developing the local network survival and the opportunities given to constituents,” she said.
She pointed out that Permatang Pauh is a very special place for the party as its constituents had remained with PKR even in the 2004 general election when BN, led by former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, won 198 out of 219 parliamentary seats in the country.
She said it is now important for PKR to continue to push forward with its reform agenda in the by-election by retaining the seat.
Nominations for the by-election is on April 25 and polling will be on May 7.
