Pakatan Rakyat de-facto head Anwar Ibrahim has confirmed that a PKR candidate will be fielded in the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election early next month, urging former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee’s SAPP to give way so that Pakatan could have a straight fight against BN.
“Pakatan Rakyat leaders met and we decided to field a PKR candidate.We hope SAPP won't contest, because we want a straight fight with BN,” Anwar told reporters on Tuesday.
Anwar, who is also the PKR adviser, said the party will be naming the candidate soon. Nomination day is on October 26 and balloting November 4.
Sabah DAP chairman and MP for Kota Kinabalu Dr Hiew King Cheu will be in charge of the Pakatan campaign, Anwar added.
Batu Sapi is a mostly-Muslim constituency and fell vacant after PBS MP Edmund Chong was killed in a bike accident. PBS has already announced that it is likely to propose another ethnic Chinese to contest. It will name its candidate on Saturday.
Tough but not impossible
Meanwhile, newly-elected Batu Sapi PKR chief Hassnar Ebrahim and Tuaran division chief Ansari Abdullah are among frontrunners likely to be chosen to carry the Pakatan flag.
It is unclear if SAPP will agree to Anwar’s request.
"Because this is just a by-election, it won't cause an immediate change in the state government, but SAPP will shake the BN, whose members will panic and try to run from BN,” Tee Lee had said on Saturday.
SAPP pulled out of the BN in 2008 and is raring at the chance to prove its mettle to its own members as well as Sabahans in general.
Batu Sapi is seen as a tough seat for Pakatan as it is part of the BN’s traditional stronghold. There will be another by-election – the Galas state seat in Kelantan - running simultaneously to the Batu Sapi contest. Nomination and balloting will be held on the same days as the Batu Sapi's.
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