JOHOR BARU, Sept 1 — PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli today clarified that he will not be contesting in Johor for the coming 15th general election as rumoured.
He also attested that he never had plans to be fielded as a Johor parliamentary candidate despite recently being appointed as the state PKR chief.
“My appointment by PKR’s top leadership to lead Johor is a strategic decision to task me with coordinating the election campaign in the state and not to stand as a candidate.
“I can personally confirm that I will not contest in Johor and it is final,” Rafizi told reporters after chairing his second meeting with the newly appointed Johor PKR state leadership council at the party’s state office in Pusat Perdagangan Danga Utama in Skudai here.
The meeting started at 9.45pm and ended around midnight.
Rafizi, who is also PKR’s election director, was appointed as PKR’s Federal Territories and Johor state chief on August 3.
Rumour had it that the former Pandan MP will be fielded in Johor Baru or Batu Pahat, as the two parliamentary seats are seen as PKR’s strong support bases.
He added that he is now unsure if he would be eligible to stand for national polls after being called for police questioning.
He had accused Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad of financial mischief in relation to the RM9 billion littoral combat ships (LCS) procurement and asked the police to investigate.
An aide of Dr Abdul Latiff filed a counter-complaint with the police earlier this week against Rafizi for alleged defamation.
