Puteri Reformasi Nurul Izzah Anwar is not keen to contest in the March 8 general election, her father and de facto PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim has revealed.

nurul izzah history 300307 africa Anwar, when met after a ceramah in Rembau, Negri Sembilan yesterday said her 27-year-old eldest daughter has told him that she is "reluctant" to be fielded as a candidate in the polls.

"She said she is personally not keen but she will be helping the campaign, not necessarily as a candidate. I leave it to her to decide," Anwar told reporters in an impromptu press conference after the ceramah .

He added that Nurul Izzah was also discussing the matter with supporters who wanted her to contest.

The ex-deputy premier however confirmed that his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, will be defending the party’s sole parliamentary seat, Permatang Pauh, in Penang.

He also said PKR is expected to finalise and announce the party’s candidates list next Monday.

Dropped plan in 2004 too

Anwar’s comments came in the wake of earlier speculation that Nurul Izzah may make her electoral debut in the Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat in Kuala Lumpur in the coming polls.

This followed the statement from Kuala Lumpur PKR elections director Salehuddin Hashim who said that Nurul Izzah is the best candidate for the seat and even offered a ‘special’ team to run her election campaign.

Some party leaders are hoping that fielding Nurul Izzah will boost the PKR’s chances by drawing support from young voters and women.

Fondly called Puteri Reformasi (princess of reformasi), Nurul Izzah was one of the most recognisable faces to lead the reformasi movement - dominated by the youths - in 1998 which erupted after Anwar’s unceremonious sacking from the government.

nurul izzah interview 210307 confident While Anwar did not elaborate on why his daughter was reluctant to contest, it could have been linked to the fact that Nurul Izzah had just given birth to her first child five months ago.

This is not the first time she was rumoured to be a potential election candidate.

In the run-up to the 2004 general election, Nurul Izzah was also tipped to contest Lembah Pantai as well against Umno incumbent Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

However, she dropped the plan as she was then facing her final-year examination as an electronic and electrical engineering student at Universiti Tenaga Nasional.

The party later decided to field Dr Sanusi Osman but he lost to BN’s Shahrizat by 15,288-majority votes, giving the latter her third term as MP. Shahrizat is the popular minister for women, family and community development.

Nurul Izzah had declared her readiness to be in active politics, including contesting a seat in April last year after a 18-month hiatus in the United States for studies.

However, in the PKR poll a month later, she pulled out from contesting for ‘family reasons’ although she had been nominated for various posts including that of the Youth’s deputy chief.