JOHOR BARU, Oct 21 — A commotion broke out at the Batu Pahat PKR division office today after some members were reportedly against the decision to include several names as parliamentary candidates for the coming 15th general election (GE15), claimed sources.
Malay Mail understands that the issue began several days ago after 10 names were said to have been submitted to the PKR leadership as potential parliamentary candidates for Batu Pahat, a federal constituency that is highly coveted by Pakatan Harapan (PH).
However, out of the 10 names, only one potential candidate is said to be a Batu Pahat local.
The candidate has been identified as the current Batu Pahat PKR division chief Khairuddin Abdul Rahim, who is also the former Senggarang assemblyman.
A Johor PKR source said the issue had triggered much unhappiness among the division’s grassroots today.
“The grassroots leadership, loyal to former Batu Pahat PKR division chief Syed Hamid Ali and Khairuddin, decided to boycott the nine names by openly rejecting them in a show of solidarity.
“For the Batu Pahat PKR division, their choice of candidate must be a local. The groundwork showed that local residents are tired and fed up with political parties fielding candidates from outside the central Johor district,” said the source to Malay Mail tonight.
This comes after a fierce resistance was mounted by Batu Pahat PKR members earlier today.
The division also raised the matter to the party’s central leadership to express their displeasure.
The source added that the other nine names were PKR members from other divisions, some of whom are said not to even have positions.
He said this had angered the division’s grassroots and they demanded that the central leadership put a stop to non-locals being fielded for Batu Pahat.
“Even the incumbent MP Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon, who defected from PKR to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), was not from Batu Pahat and was parachuted here in the 2018 national polls.
“The Batu Pahat PKR wants to put a stop to the central leadership’s habit of parachuting outside candidates for the parliamentary constituency,” explained the source.
Another PKR source believes that the issue was due to the party’s central leadership that failed to understand the Batu Pahat division’s needs.
He said Khairuddin, who is also an environmental activist, was a popular division choice due to his past achievements as an assemblyman.
“What happened today was the grassroots demand for the party’s central leadership to respect their needs.
“We fear that if the situation persists a division-level boycott of the party’s external candidate will happen in Batu Pahat, causing PKR to lose a valuable seat,” he said.
Batu Pahat has been among one of the coveted constituencies in Johor for the Opposition due to its past voter support for Pakatan Harapan (PH).
In the 14th general election (GE14), Mohd Rashid won the Batu Pahat constituency under PKR with a majority of 17,894 votes, defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Haliza Abdullah and PAS candidate Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamed.
In 2020, Mohd Rashid was made the Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker under former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, after he defected from PKR for Bersatu during the Sheraton Move.
