Cameron Highlands: Harapan fields DAP’s Manogaran

DAP man M Manogaran has been announced as Pakatan Harapan’s candidate for the Cameron Highlands by-election.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this during a press conference after chairing the coalition’s presidential council meeting today.

“We have decided who will contest in the Cameron Highlands by-election, our candidate is Manogaran, who was the former candidate (during the 14th general election),” he said.

Manogaran, who is Pahang DAP deputy chairperson, then walked into the room and shook hands with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir.

Mahathir added that he was confident that Harapan would wrest the seat from BN.

“We will win the by-election.

“We don’t know who will contest against us, we have heard all sorts of things (about the other candidate).

“Whoever it is, we believe we will be able to overcome the problem,” he said.

MIC has announced its decision to contest in the Jan 26 by-election, but has yet to announce a candidate.

It has also been speculated that disputed MyPPP president M Kayveas, who was lobbying hard for the seat before GE14, might enter the race as well though he has not confirmed it.

PAS and PSM will be sitting out of the by-election.

The Cameron Highlands by-election was triggered when the Election Court declared the seat vacant after determining that vote-buying had led to MIC vice-president C Sivarraajh’s win in GE14.

MIC did not appeal the decision and the Election Commission later announced a by-election, setting Jan 12 as nomination day and Jan 26 as polling day.

The EC has since disqualified Sivarraajh from contesting or voting in polls for five years.

In GE14, he won the seat in a five-cornered fight with 10,307 votes, a slim 597 votes more than Manogaran’s 9,710 votes.

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