Pakatan Harapan meets tomorrow on candidates for by-elections

Pakatan Harapan, comprising Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) will meet Sunday to determine which party in the coalition will contest in the two Parliamentary by-elections on June 18.

The two by-elections are being held due to vacancies in the Sungai Besar, Selangor and Kuala Kangsar, Perak Parliamentary seats following the death of incumbents, Datuk Noriah Kasnon, who was also the Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, and Datuk Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, in a helicopter crash in Sebuyau, Sarawak on May 5.

Amanah president, Mohamad Sabu said the meeting would be held at the Amanah office in Kuala Lumpur in preparation for the contest in the by-elections.

"We will field a candidate either from the DAP, PKR or Amanah," he told reporters after a dinner function organised by the Pasir Puteh Amanah, here last night.

Mohamad was asked to comment on the statement by PAS deputy president, Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man who reminded the DAP, PKR and Amanah not to field their candidates in the by-elections merely to gauge support, and claimed that both the seats were traditionally held by PAS and the party would defend them.

Mohamad said PAS was not in the Pakatan Harapan coalition and if the party wished to contest in the by-election it was the right of PAS.

At a special meeting yesterday, the Election Commission decided that the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar Parliamentary by-elections would be held simultaneously with nomination day being set for June 5, early voting on June 14 and polling day on June 18.