PKR hari ini meminta Perdana Menteri supaya menafikan hak Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim daripada bertanding dalam pilihanraya umum akan datang.

Selepa 15 April

Jangan nafi hak

Biar Anwar bertanding dalam p'raya umum

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) hari ini menggesa Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi mengadakan pilihanraya umum selepas 15 April supaya Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim layak bertanding.

Setiausaha Agung PKR, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim berkata, Abdullah tidak harus menetapkan tarikh pilihanraya umum sebelum itu untuk sekali lagi menafikan hak Anwar untuk bertanding, seperti yang berlaku pada 1999 dan 2004.

"Kita pun mahu pilihanraya diadakan awal, tetapi tetapkan hari penamaan calon pada 15 April atau selepasnya," tambahnya.

Anwar dilarang bertanding dalam pilihanraya sehingga 15 April ekoran sabitan kesalahan dan hukuman bagi tuduhan salahguna kuasa dan liwat.

“Anwar has already been wrongfully deprived of his political rights since his first conviction on April 14, 1999.

“Both his convictions have been universally condemned as politically motivated, and the result of procedurally flawed and unfair trials, rendering his six year incarceration in Sungai Buloh prison, a political detention,” added Khalid.

He added that if the government believed that Anwar has become“irrelevant” to Malaysian politics, then there should be no reluctance in delaying the election by a month or so to allow him to participate.

The prime minister is expected to call for the election very soon. Pundits speculate that the elections could be held in mid March.

[Full report to follow]