PAS treats DAP Bukit Gelugor candidate as its own

PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu on Saturday declared the party will support DAP candidate, Ramkarpal Singh in the Bukit Gelugor by-election on May 25.

He said the party considered the DAP candidate as PAS's candidate and would give their undivided support to the son of the late Karpal Singh.

"We will give our full support and tomorrow night we will be launching PAS election machinery to assist DAP in the Bukit Gelugor by-election," he told reporters after DAP announced its candidate, here on Saturday.

Mohd Sabu, who is also the state PAS commissioner, said party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang would be present to show support to the DAP candidate on nomination day.

On a PAS member, Mohamed Nabi Bux Mohd Nabi Abdul Sathar's intention to contest in the by-election, Mohamed said PAS would be investigating the validity of his membership.

"I am not sure if he is a member or not, if he is a member, it will depend on the outcome of a meeting tomorrow for violating party directive," he said.

He said PAS had decided not to stand in the by-election and the party would not hesitate to sack members for disobeying the order.

On Friday, Mohamed Nabi Bux, 63, who claimed to be a Gombak branch PAS member stated his intention to contest in the by-election on the ground of wanting Penang to implement the hudud law by 2020.

Nabi Bux also said he was prepared to contest as an independent if he was not selected to represent the party.

Karpal was among the opposition coalition leaders who was strongly against implementing hudud law in the country.

Earlier, two individuals had expressed their interests to stand in the by-election, namely Parti Cinta Malaysia vice-president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan and homestay manager, Mohd Yacoob Mohd Noor.

A non-governmental organisation, the Penang Front Party also said it was keen on the contest.

The Bukit Gelugor Parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent, Karpal Singh in a road accident on April 17.

The Election Commission has set nomination day for May 21 and polling day for May 25.

In the last general election, Karpal Singh, the former chairman of DAP won the seat with a 42,706 vote majority overcoming Barisan Nasional's Teh Beng Yeam who obtained 13,597 votes.