PKR to field fresh faces for most seats in Perak

The party hopes to contest in five parliamentary and 16 state seats in Perak, says a source, adding that most of the candidates will be young, new faces.

Lone PKR parliamentary incumbent in Perak, Dr Lee Boon Chye, is eyeing a third term as Gopeng MP.

PETALING JAYA: Perak PKR is ready to field younger, fresh faces in federal and state seats in the upcoming polls.

Revealing this, a party source said PKR hoped to contest five parliamentary and 16 state seats.

The source said Gopeng was the only parliamentary seat that the party had to defend, following the seat distribution formula for the peninsular states by the Pakatan Harapan presidential council in January.

Two-term Gopeng MP Dr Lee Boon Chye would be named again to defend his seat, the source said.

PKR also won in Lumut, but that seat will now be contested by a candidate from Amanah.

Perak PKR chief Muhammad Nur Manuty, when contacted, confirmed the party would be fielding young, new and women candidates in GE14. He declined to say more.

Gopeng is one of five parliamentary seats that PKR will contest in the 14th general election (GE14), with the other four being Padang Rengas, Sungai Siput, Bagan Datuk and Tanjung Malim.

In the May 2013 general election, Lee beat Barisan Nasional’s Tan Chin Meng by a 15,309-vote majority in Gopeng, a seat with almost equal Chinese and Malay voters – 46% and 43%, respectively.

Having lost in Padang Rengas, Bagan Datuk and Tanjung Malim previously, PKR will now be fielding new faces for these seats in GE14.

Interestingly, PKR is expected to field a newcomer in Sungei Siput against the incumbent Michael Jeyakumar of PSM, who had contested the seat on a PKR ticket five years ago.

Meanwhile, on state seats, the PKR source revealed that five of its state assemblymen would remain where they were – in Kuala Kurau, Kuala Sepetang, Simpang Pulai, Teja and Hutan Melintang.

The party is also hoping to contest in another 11 state seats but the list of candidates has not been finalised yet, according to the source, who would only say that here, too, there would be many new faces.

The seats include Kenering, Batu Kurau, Alor Pongsu, Chenderoh, Lintang, Hulu Kinta, Bukit Chandan, Tualang Sekah and Sungai Manik.

The Election Commission (EC) set the GE14 polling day on May 9, while nomination day is set for April 28 and early voting for military and police personnel as well as voters living abroad has been fixed for May 5. - FMT