KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tonight suggested that his party and ally Parti Amanah Negara might take in two of the four former Melaka assemblymen whose actions triggered the Melaka state election.

However, Anwar said this has yet to be finalised, and both PKR and Amanah are expected to announce tomorrow morning their candidate line-up for the state election.

In an online video-conferencing session held tonight, Anwar sought to pre-emptively explain the possible acceptance of “one or two” Melaka assemblymen formerly from Umno.

Anwar claimed that the four former Melaka assemblymen had returned the mandate to Pakatan Harapan by recently pulling their support from the Melaka government and resulting in the state assembly’s dissolution, while acknowledging that there will be those who disagree with such a view. 

He also claimed that there was no issue of jumping from one political party to another since the Melaka state assembly has been dissolved.

“The state legislative assembly has been dissolved, the issue of party-hopping, anti-party hopping does not arise. They are no more state assemblymen, they now need a new mandate, so it is up to the party to accept or not,” he said.

He also pointed out that in terms of the Malays, Umno claims to have the support of more than three million people and PAS more than one million, while suggesting that the acceptance of the former state assemblymen would be conditional on them accepting the policies and diversity of the opposition parties. 

“Therefore, we from the party as far as I understand, Keadilan only choose one, and Amanah choose one, although it will be finalised late tonight, God-willing, tomorrow morning we announce,” he said.

Earlier today, DAP — PKR’s and Amanah’s fellow ally in the Pakatan Harapan coalition — had already announced its eight candidates for the Melaka state election.

DAP on November 2 had urged its allies to reconsider the possible fielding of two former Umno state assemblymen as candidates for Pakatan Harapan in the Melaka elections, suggesting that it would otherwise be a mistake as PH would lose the moral high ground.

The Election Commission (EC) has set November 20 as polling day for the Melaka state election.

Nomination day is November 8 and early polling will be held on November 16.