THE PKR leadership is still undecided on whether to back Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the interim prime minister should Pakatan Harapan (PH) win the coming elections.

“Tonight, the PKR political bureau discussed the candidate proposal for prime minister that was put forward during the PH retreat on December 1 and 2,” said PKR’s communications director Fahmi Fadzil after a three-hour meeting.

“Seeing that the proposals have yet to be officially adopted by PH’s presidential council and in consideration of the Reformasi struggle, the PKR political bureau has decided to continue discussing the proposals to ensure the best choice is made for Malaysia,” he told reporters.

Among those who attended tonight’s meeting was PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tian Chua as well as PH secretariat chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah.

The leaders declined to comment on the meeting when approached by reporters.  

“I won’t confirm nor deny what was discussed. There was a discussion on whose (names) can be put forward as candidates and it was discussed,” Fahmi said.

“There was a proposal or proposals that were discussed during the retreat (last week). And tonight we (PKR) discussed the principles of those proposals.”

“We will make an announcement on the matter. We want to make sure we fully deliberate the matter. We are continuing the discussion,” Fahmi said.

He, however, declined to give a timeframe on when the party would decide the proposal and added that no date has been set for PH’s next presidential meeting.

Dr Mahathir and Dr Wan Azizah were named as interim prime minister and deputy prime minister respectively after a two-day coalition retreat in Putrajaya that ended on Saturday.

Except for PKR, other PH parties have agreed to the names should the coalition win the 14th general election, which must be held by next August. – December 5, 2017.