PAKATAN Harapan’s candidate in Pekan, Zahid Mat Arip, said he was told to withdraw from the race in a phone call yesterday.

Zahid, from Bersatu, said the caller told him that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will be sent after him if he insists on taking on the Pekan incumbent, caretaker prime minister Najib Razak.

He said the caller was a “Datuk from Kuala Lumpur”.

“He suggested that I withdraw and drop my intention to contest. He claimed that MACC will arrest me,” Zahid told reporters after nominations closed in Pekan today.

He filed his nomination to contest the seat.

Zahid was remanded for five days by MACC in August last year to facilitate investigations into Felda Investment Corporation’s (FIC) purchase of an overpriced hotel in Kuching.

No charges were filed against him.

He is a former aide to Felda and FIC chairman Isa Samad, who is at the centre of controversies and scandals involving the land development authority.

Zahid said he does not think that Najib is behind the threat.

“Even though Najib doesn’t like me, he is a gentleman,” said the grandson of former deputy prime minister Ghafar Baba.

Pekan, Najib’s stronghold since 1976, will see a four-cornered fight between Barisan Nasional, PH, PAS and an independent candidate. – April 28, 2018.