PAS central working committee member Dr Lo' Lo Ghazali today refuted a statement by PAS Kedah women's wing chief Wan Tom Wan Md Noor that the party has no suitable women candidate for the coming Pendang parliamentary by-election.

"I disagree with her on this because I do know quite a number of qualified women candidates who can be fielded there, but I don't think that I should reveal their names," said Lo' Lo'.

However, she agreed with Wan Tom that no one can match the late Fadzil Mohd Noor's charisma and credibility, including other male candidates.

"We are not looking for a female candidate to replace Fadzil as party president, but as a Member of Parliament, as a result of his demise," said Lo' Lo', when contacted by malaysiakini .

"Our concern now is to field candidates in Pendang and for the Anak Bukit state seat, and not to find someone to replace Fadzil as a high-profile figure at national or international level.

"That's why I don't see any reason why we cannot have women candidates there," said Lo' Lo'.

Yesterday, Wan Tom said the party central committee has offered PAS Kedah to name a woman candidate for Pendang, but unfortunately, no one is found suitable for the task.

Difficult match

She said that it is difficult to find a candidate who can match the late Fadzil's personality and charisma, let alone when it comes to a woman candidate.

Although Wan Tom said that she did not mean that there is no qualified women candidates, "the candidate has to be more than just good" to contest in the parliamentary seat vacated by Fadzil.

Nevertheless, she assured that the contestant for the parliamentary seat will at least be on par with Fadzil in terms of quality.

Meanwhile, PAS secretary-general Nasharudin Mat Isa said the party has yet to decide on the candidates for both the Pendang and Anak Bukit seats.

"At the moment, we are looking at a few people, but decision is expected to be made after the Election Commission announces the nomination and polling dates (which is expected to be tomorrow)," said Nasharudin.

Although Nasharudin refused to suggest the possible candidates for both seats, party sources have already indicated a few names.

Fadzil's son tipped

For the Pendang parliamentary seat, one of the names tipped is Fadzil's son Dr Amar Fadzil, a lecturer at a public higher learning institute.

Two other candidates are PAS information chief and Sala state assemblyperson Azizan Abdul Razak, and Dr Haron Din a former lecturer in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and opposition political speaker.

For the Anak Bukit state seat, Fadzil's political secretary Dr Hatta Ramli has been said to be one of the possible candidates.

Nevertheless, Hatta declined to say anything when contacted this evening.

On the Barisan Nasional side, Othman Abdul is strongly tipped to be the ruling coalition's standard bearer in Pendang.

Othman is the former parliamentary-secretary in the Prime Minister's Department and also a former Mara chairperson.

In the 1999 general election, Fadzil snatched the Pendang seat from Othman, who was then the incumbent, with a majority of 2,900 votes.

Fadzil died in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday without regaining consciousness after a heart bypass operation two weeks earlier.

The late PAS leader won the Anak Bukit state seat also in the 1999 general election with a majority of 1,840 votes against Umno's Abdullah Hasnan Kamaruddin.

Meanwhile, Election Commission secretary Wan Ahmad Wan Omar on Wednesday said the date for both Pendang and Anak Bukit by-elections is likely to be announced on Saturday (tomorrow).

The Pendang constituency has 54,301 registered voters while the Anak Bukit constituency has 19,800 voters.