SHAH ALAM, Jan 14 — PKR will not proceed with filing an election petition against Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who retained the Pagoh parliamentary seat in the national polls last November, party deputy president Rafizi Ramli said today.
He said he did not want to waste the party’s resources on the matter.
“I don't think we will proceed with that, I don’t want to drag the party's resources into this.
“I don’t want this question about Christianity and Jews to drag on as this would give more room for widening of racial and religious polemic.
“That’s why I didn’t respond much to it,” Rafizi told reporters after addressing PKR members at a convention here to prepare for the upcoming state elections.
Rafizi, who is also economy affairs minister, was referring to Muhyiddin’s controversial GE15 campaign speech last year that insinuated Malaysia would be in jeopardy if Pakatan Harapan (PH) were elected to power.
In a video clip of his speech that was posted online, Muhyiddin was heard saying it was “very dangerous” if PH were to return to federal power due to the coalition’s “Christianisation” agenda and that its members were supposedly working with Jews to achieve this.
Rafizi said that instead of petitioning, PKR will appoint a team to look out for such similar remarks in the coming state elections in order to prevent such propaganda from being repeated.
On the eve of the November 19, 2022 polling day, Rafizi had vowed his party would seek to file an election petition against Muhyiddin if he were reelected Pagoh MP on grounds of deliberately stoking racial sentiments by claiming there were attempts by Opposition-linked Christian groups to proselytise to Muslims in Malaysia.
Rafizi had said the bid to nullify Muhyiddin’s election victory in the 15th general election stemmed from the latter’s violation of Section 4(a) of the Election Offences Act over a malicious statement made during a ceramah that has since gone viral on social media.
