PAKATAN Harapan (PH) will carry out their own vetting of candidates for the coming national polls, says its president, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, adding there is no need to have its candidates vetted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Dr Wan Azizah was responding to MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad, who had said Barisan Nasional (BN) was the only party that had submitted its names of leaders and would-be candidates to be vetted.

“The BN’s list, they (BN) already have a problem, so they (the candidates) have to go through (vetting).

“Of course, we have our own internal vetting system (and) if need be, we will send it (to the MACC),” she said on the sidelines of a PH press conference in Petaling Jaya today.

She said that in the past, the opposition coalition had submitted complaints to the MACC but no action taken.

“You must remember that in the past, when we file a complaint (no action is taken) but complaints against the opposition are always acted on promptly.

“So, we have to be wary about whether this (vetting by the MACC) is just a political ploy,” Dr Wan Azizah said.

She also questioned what role, if any, the MACC had in the vetting process.

“I am just saying, who is MACC?”

The MACC had invited parties to submit the names of prospective 14th general election candidates to be vetted, despite it not being a legal requirement for the parties to do so.

Dzulkifli had said vetting could be done to ensure that candidates were “clean” and not tainted by corruption and abuse of power.

He assured that its vetting process was confidential and any action taken after receiving the commission’s findings was up to the parties concerned. – September 27, 2017.