KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — After being left off Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) 15th general election (GE15) candidate list, former PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang will most likely go ahead and contest the Batu seat as an independent candidate.
Chua held the Batu seat for two terms — once in 2008 and another in 2013. He has been fighting to regain the seat since he was disqualified by the Election Commission (EC) in the 2018 polls for insulting a police officer.
An unnamed source told news portal The Vibes that Chua is expected to file his nomination paper tomorrow morning.
“Chua has set his sights on regaining the seat. He wants to win it back after being disqualified from contesting in the last election. But a lot can happen between now and tomorrow morning.
“I think we will get a confirmation by then,” the unnamed source was quoted as saying.
However, PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil said that if Chua is indeed contesting, the party will attempt to sway his decision.
“It’s not something we would be quiet about, we won’t sit on it. I’d imagine the leadership will speak with him and try to convince him that the bigger picture is not Batu alone, but to capture Putrajaya.
“I hope that if there’s been any attempt to reach out to Chua, and if whatever rumours we are hearing are substantiated, there’s time to think of alternatives,” he said.
After Tian Chua was barred from taking part in GE14, he supported independent candidate P. Prabakaran — who later joined PKR and won the Batu seat.
Since then, their mentor-protégé relationship has turned sour especially after Prabakaran defeated Tian Chua for the Batu PKR division chief post during the party’s internal polls earlier this year.
In GE15, Prabakaran will be defending his seat. Others that will be contesting include MIC vice-president Datuk A. Kohilan Pillay, and Gerak Independent movement’s Siti Zabedah Kasim.
