SHAH ALAM: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) today confirmed that they will defend all 48 parliamentary seats and 73 state seats that they won in the last general election, at the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15).

Its secretary-general, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said it was one of the decisions made by the party leadership during their recent retreat in Subang Jaya.

"It was decided during the retreat that Keadilan will contest the GE15 with the objective to win and to rule. If given the mandate by the people, our Prime Minister's candidate will be (PKR president) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim," he said when opening Angkatan Muda Keadilan (AMK) Annual National Congress 2021 and 2022 here today.

Saifuddin, who is Kulim Bandar Baharu Member of Parliament (MP), said it was also decided that a discussion would be held with other Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties, namely DAP, Amanah and United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO) on additional seats to be contested by PKR, with the hope that PKR will emerge as the largest and strongest party.

"We have also instructed our election machinery to make the necessary preparation," he said at the congress attended by 422 delegates from across the country.

Saifuddin said to convince the people, the party leadership also underlined three thrusts to be included in the party manifesto comprising efforts to combat corruption; rebuild the country's economy including by putting an end to rice monopoly and providing social protection to the people such as cash assistance; and setting the universal basic income to replace minimum wage.

Meanwhile, Saifuddin also called on the delegates to continue giving their support and loyalty to Anwar's leadership and to dismiss any allegation that the Port Dickson MP was a liability to the party.

"The allegation that Anwar is a liability has been around since 1999, it is not new...but the fact is, Anwar has led the PKR to win five parliamentary seats in 1999 and increase that number to 48 in 2018, which enabled the PH to form the government," he said.

-- BERNAMA