The candidates for the seat are incumbent Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) P. Prabakaran, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk A Kohilan Pillay and Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Azhar Yahya, who also contested in Batu in the last general election (GE14) under the PAS ticket.
Former PKR vice-president Tian Chua is contesting the seat as an independent after he was dropped by the party in favour of Prabakaran. He was the Batu MP from 2008 to 2018, but failed to defend his seat in the last general election after being disqualified on nomination day.
Joining the race in Batu are Parti Warisan’s Naganathan Pillai, Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s (PRM) Zulkifli Fattah and Parti Pejuang Tanah Air’s Wan Azliana Wan Adnan.
Candidates throwing their hat in the ring as independent candidates are lawyer and activist Siti Zabedah Kasim representing Gerak Independent as well as social media influencer Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharuddin, or “Cleopatra” as she is better known.
The other candidate contesting as independent in Batu is Too Cheng Huat.
In GE14, Prabakaran won the Batu parliamentary seat as an independent candidate supported by PKR.
He garnered a majority of 24,438 votes in a four-cornered race, defeating BN’s Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai, PAS’s Azhar Yahya and independent candidate, Datuk V M Panjamothy. Prabakaran later joined PKR.
