KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 – When Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) vice-president Nurul Izzah(pic) refuted the statement by her father, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that her mother, Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is not contesting in the 13th general election (GE13), several groups were wondering whether things were brewing up in the PKR family.
Could it be that it was merely a drama or that there was actually an open conflict in the party? Nurul Izzah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, described the statement by the opposition leader merely as a ‘political talk’ and that, so far, there has been no such plan. In fact, Nurul Izzah also does not believe that Anwar will move over to contest in Perak as was hinted by the PKR advisor.
“So far, there has been no such plan and it will be finalised on nomination day,” Nurul Izzah told reporters after giving a ceramah at Chabang Tiga, Kuala Terengganu last night.
Deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, a staunch supporter of Anwar, on the other hand confirmed the statement made by Anwar during the interview by Al-Jazeera television station on Wednesday night.
“Wan Azizah will play her role to tour the country to woo the women voters and will not contest for a State Legislative Assembly seat,” said Azmin regarding the party president when met by reporters at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya.
Dr Wan Azizah had earlier stated that she would be contesting for a state seat in Selangor but the constituency had yet to be decided. So far, Dr Wan Azizah had yet to make any comment since the Al-Jazeera interview. Anwar had told the Al-Jazeera station that his wife had decided not to contest when responding to a question concerning the criticism on nepotism in the PKR because he was the PKR advisor while Nurul Izzah was the party vice-president.
Dr Wan Azizah was also nowhere to be seen when Anwar and the opposition party leaders had a meeting last night at the PKR headquarters to finalise the seat allocations. In July 2008, Dr Wan Azizah, who was then the opposition leader, vacated her Permatang Pauh Parliamentary seat to make way for Anwar to contest in the by-election on Aug 26, 2008. Anwar won the by-election, beating the Barisan Nasional (BN) and the Angkatan Keadilan Islam Malaysia (AKIM) candidates.
Nurul Izzah expects Anwar to make the official announcement on the party’s candidates on Wednesday. Mohamed Azmin had said that the list of PKR candidates would be finalised by Sunday at the latest. Meanwhile, Anwar again posed a puzzle on his candidacy whether he would be contesting in Perak or remain in Permatang Pauh.
Last night in Gerik, he had given the excuse that he wanted ‘to discuss’ with the constituents in Permatang Pauh so that “they will not be offended” and appealed that he be given 24 hours to make a decision.
BERNAMA
