The contest for Wangsa Maju parliamentary seat may see Pakatan Harapan fielding another newbie as its federal-election candidate.
This came as the incumbent Wangsa Maju MP Tan Yee Kew was said to be retiring from politics, and thus not defending her seat to make way for a fresh face.
It was learnt that PKR members had nominated several names to fill the vacancy, including two party leaders - Lee Chean Chung and Andre Lai.
Lee (above, left) is PKR communications director and a two-term Semambu state assemblyperson in Pahang, while Lai is the incumbent Wangsa Maju PKR division chief.
Both had not contested any parliamentary seat before.
Checks on their respective social media accounts showed that both politicians had been actively engaged in voter-centric activities around the Wangsa Maju constituency in recent days.
In many of the activity photos posted on Lee's Facebook, Lee was seen being accompanied by Tan while Lai had been going around with Wangsa Maju division members.
When asked to comment on the matter, both Lee and Lai declined to confirm if they were going to be fielded as candidates, citing that it was up to PKR and Harapan leadership to decide.
Healthy competition
However, Lee confirmed that several individuals including himself had their names sent to the party leadership for consideration.
"I think there are a few candidates. We are waiting for the party to finalise a decision," he told Malaysiakini.
According to the politician, Lee had seen several others including Lai going around doing activities "on the ground" and believed they are also working towards building support, in case of being selected to represent Harapan for the Wangsa Maju constituency (P116).
Lee said he takes the competition as something healthy for the party, as PKR and Harapan would have more than one good candidate to choose from.
"And I think whoever becomes the candidate, we as party members, should give our full support," he said.
When asked about Tan, Lee declined to comment much except saying the incumbent did not nominate herself to the party to defend her seat in this election.
Lai, meanwhile, when asked to comment if he is hoping to be picked as a candidate, asked Malaysiakini to wait for the party’s official announcement, which would come in the next few days.
"I have no comment, sir. The nomination or not is decided in a strict appraisal process under JPRP (PKR election committee).
"It has to go in accordance with the process and I believe this is the best. Our deputy president (Rafizi Ramli) is also helming the election committee," he said.
Malaysiakini has also sent a request for comments to Tan through her aide.
PKR first wrested the Wangsa Maju parliamentary seat from MCA in the 12th general election in 2008, and had retained it since.
This includes the 14th general election in 2018 when Tan, who contested the seat for the first time, received a total of 42,178 votes to win with a 24,238 votes majority.
This was after she initially almost lost her chance to contest the seat for PKR due to a gaffe during the nomination day, when Tan forgot to bring her MyKad to the nomination centre. - Mkini
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