How can Wan Azizah be in Kajang and Permatang Pauh? asks Ahmad Maslan

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Umno’s Datuk Ahmad Maslan has questioned why Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is contesting the Permatang Pauh by-election in Penang when the PKR president is already Kajang assemblyman in Selangor.

Ahmad Maslan, who is Umno information chief and deputy finance minister, told news website Astro Awani that although his party also has a leader — Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed — who is both a federal and state lawmaker, Mustapa’s Air Lanas state constituency is located within his Jeli parliamentary constituency in Kelantan.

“As Kajang state assemblyman, (Dr) Wan Azizah should be living there and giving the best services to the residents there, so why does she want to contest in Permatang Pauh?” Ahmad Maslan was quoted saying in the Astro Awani report published today.

“Tok Pa can manage his two constituencies well because they are located close by compared to (Dr) Wan Azizah; the two cases are very different,” he added.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng from the DAP and Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali from PKR also hold both parliamentary and state seats, but their seats are located within the same states, Penang and Selangor respectively.

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia’s Sunday edition said in an editorial yesterday that voters in Permatang Pauh, Penang, must never forget PKR’s failed attempt to install Dr Wan Azizah as Selangor MB last year — dubbed the “Kajang Move” — that had nearly caused a leadership and constitutional crisis in the state.

The editorial claimed that the PKR president’s candidacy for her jailed husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat only reinforces the fact that PKR practises open nepotism.

The rejection of Anwar’s bid for a royal pardon of his conviction and five-year imprisonment for sodomy caused his Permatang Pauh seat and subsequently, his post as parliamentary opposition leader, to be vacated.

Dr Wan Azizah faces three opponents in the Permatang Pauh by-election — Suhaimi Sabudin for BN, PRM’s Azman Shah Othman and independent Salleh Isahak.