SHAH ALAM, March 29 – Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail(Pic), who has ruled herself out of contesting a parliamentary seat for five years from July 2008 by having resigned as Permatang Pauh MP then, said today she is eligible to contest a state seat in the next general election.
She said the matter had been discussed informally, but added that she was focusing more now on campaigning for the party. Wan Azizah was asked about talk that she would contest one of the state seats in the Shah Alam parliamentary constituency or the Sementa state seat in Selangor in the 13th general election, to be called anytime now.
She had won the Permatang Pauh seat in Penang in the general election in 2008 and resigned as the MP on July 31, 2008, to enable her husband and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to contest and win the seat in a by-election on Aug 26 of that year. Wan Azizah spoke to reporters after handing over a Selangor government donation of RM20,000 to each of the families of the security forces personnel slain during the terrorist intrusion in Lahad Datu, Sabah.
Earlier, Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim denied that the state legislative assembly had not been dissolved for elections thus far because certain quarters did not concur in the matter. It was a party strategy, he said after launching an application system at the Selangor Land and Mines Office. Last Tuesday, Abdul Khalid had announced that the Selangor legislative assembly would be dissolved on April 22. He had earlier said that the dissolution would be after the “Chap Goh Meh” celebration at the end of last February.
BERNAMA
