PKR vice-president K. Saraswathy will contest the Tapah parliamentary seat for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the coming general election, Anwar Ibrahim said today.

The PH chairman also said PKR’s S. Kesavan will defend the Sungai Siput seat.

The announcement of the two PKR candidates means that seat talks between PH and Muda (for Tapah) and PSM (for Sungai Siput) have failed.

Anwar also announced that PKR candidate Hasni Abas will stand in Sembrong.

In a separate statement, PSM confirmed that its talks with PH for the Sungai Siput seat has failed and that the party will be holding an emergency meeting tomorrow to decide on its next course of action.

Sembrong was another seat that Muda had wanted to contest.

Earlier today, Perak Muda chief Mutalib Uthman announced that he would be Muda’s candidate in Tapah following talks with PH.

However, hours later, Muda information chief Luqman Long rebutted the statement, saying that so far, the party has only announced that it will be contesting three seats after discussions with PH, namely Kepala Batas, Tanjong Karang and Tanjung Piai.

Anwar also touched on Perak Muda’s announcement, saying that he had been informed by Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman that the statement was not sanctioned by the party.

“Tapah is PKR’s seat. For Muda, it has been decided that apart from Muar, it can contest in Tanjong Karang and Tanjung Piai. Other seats will be announced later,” said Anwar during his visit to Kampung Ulu Chemor today.

The Tapah constituency is an MIC/BN stronghold, held by MIC deputy president M. Saravanan since 2008. It was created in 1984 and has been in the hands of MIC/BN since the 1986 general election.

In the last general election, Saravanan retained the seat with a slim 614-vote majority in a three-cornered fight.

So far, Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Pejuang has named its candidate, Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi, to contest in Tapah.

Perikatan Nasional is also expected to name a candidate from PAS for this seat.  

As for Sungai Siput, PSM had planned to name its chairman, Dr Michael Jeyakumar, as the candidate by getting PH’s support to withdraw its candidate. 

In the last general election, PKR’s Kesavan defeated Jeyakumar for the seat, which had been MIC’s traditional seat until 2008.

In the coming polls, MIC president S.A. Vickeneswaran is expected to contest in Sungai Siput.

Sembrong, meanwhile, is a traditional Umno seat held by party veteran Hishammuddin Hussein. – October 30, 2022.