PD POLLS | PAS today announced retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Malaysian Air Force, Mohd Nazari Mokhtar (above, left) as their candidate for the Port Dickson by-election.

The announcement was made by PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man in Port Dickson tonight.

Mohd Nazari, 57, is a 28-year veteran of the air force serving from the year 1980 until 2008.

He is also the chief of the Tenggara PAS division in Johor.

According to the candidate biodata provided at the announcement venue, Nazari is currently a Felda settler and also runs a Musang King durian farm. He is also the principal of a tahfiz school in Tenggara.

His highest academic qualification is a masters in Defence and Strategy Studies from the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh.

Nazari had unsuccessfully contested the Panti and Pasir Raja state seats under the Tenggara parliamentary seat in the 14th and 13th general elections, respectively.

Veterans upset

Yesterday, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang had announced that the party will field someone with the same calibre as PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim who is running for the Port Dickson parliamentary seat in his bid to return to Parliament.

The seat's incumbent MP Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, himself a former army man, had vacated the seat for Anwar.

This had earned the wrath of army veterans group Patriot, which had earlier asked the seat to be left to Danyal.

Following the vacating of the seat, Patriot had warned that army voters in Port Dickson may decide against voting for Anwar in the by-election on Oct 13.