PKR confirms Napsiah for Kempas, not ceding Larkin to Muda
JOHOR POLLS | PKR has confirmed that its Johor women’s chief Napsiah Khamis will be contesting in the state seat of Kempas during its unveiling of the party's candidates for southern Johor today.
Napsiah (above) had gone on a public offensive after Amanah surrendered the Puteri Wangsa seat to Muda...
JOHOR POLLS | PKR has confirmed that its Johor women’s chief Napsiah Khamis will be contesting in the state seat of Kempas during its unveiling of the party's candidates for southern Johor today.
Napsiah (above) had gone on a public offensive after Amanah surrendered the Puteri Wangsa seat to Muda.
PKR had said it respected Amanah being allocated the seat that was deemed winnable but was surprised that they later surrendered it to Muda.
Napsiah had wanted to contest the seat as she had done groundwork there.
However, she will now have to settle for Kempas, for which the incumbent was the late Osman Sapian, who served as the menteri besar from 2018 until 2019.
Notably, PKR also announced Zamil Najwah Arbain for Larkin, which was sought after by Muda, indicating a breakdown in negotiations.
PKR had said no progress had been made, even at the eleventh hour last night, and indicated that the final outcome would be known when the candidates are announced.
Johor PKR deputy chief Jimmy Puah followed through with his promise not to defend the Bukit Batu seat as he plans to contest a Parliament seat in the next general election.
He is being replaced by Chiong Sen Sern.
Puah told Malaysiakini that the candidate for the state seat of Layang-Layang, where former education minister Maszlee Malik is expected to contest, would be announced alongside PKR's central Johor candidates later today.
He added that the candidates for the Tanjung Surat and Johor Lama seats would be unveiled at a later date, due to technical issues.
The five PKR candidates for the southern region are:
Zamil Najwah Arbain (Larkin)
Chiong Sen Sern (Bukit Batu)
SS Gopalakrishnan (Tiram)
Mohd Fakharuddin Moslim (Pasir Raja)
Napsiah Khamis (Kempas)
PKR will announce the remaining 15 candidates at two separate events later today.
At 6pm, the party will unveil its candidates for central Johor, followed by another announcement at 9.30pm, at which the remaining candidates for northern Johor will be introduced.
Negotiations with Muda
At today's unveiling in Johor Bahru, Johor PKR chief Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh told the press that there had been several discussions between PKR and Muda, leading up to PKR's announcement today.
"There are ongoing discussions but there are also, I think, requests for the seats. So, to me, we have also offered.
"So far, there is no meeting point between (the) both of us and I’ve (given us) a certain timeline because we also need to move forward.
"I understand the need for us to work together. Actually, that’s not a problem, but we need to move forward. I cannot be waiting all the time," said Syed Ibrahim today.
The Ledang MP, however, denied that this has meant that negotiations between the two parties have failed.
"I wouldn't say it has failed. I would say it's still open but there needs (to be) a finality.
"We are announcing the candidates today, so we are saying that we are going to contest those seats. If you ask me if the seats that we are announcing today are for Muda, yes, some…
"But to me, let's focus on winning the seats," he said.
Sources familiar with the negotiations previously said Muda's demands for Gambir and Larkin are too hard to swallow, and PKR was instead willing to offer the Umno strongholds of Sri Medan, Semarang and Benut.
It was previously established that the ground rule for the seat negotiations is that any seat sought by Muda cannot be from the ones that PKR had contested in the 2018 general election.
This leaves seats contested by Bersatu but was reallocated to PKR after the former quit Pakatan Harapan.
Amanah and DAP have agreed to give up six state seats to Muda to contest in the Johor polls.
They are Tenang, Bukit Kepong, Parit Raja, Machap, Puteri Wangsa and Bukit Permai.
Nomination day has been set for Feb 26 while Johoreans will go to the polls on March 12.
Report this comment
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.