PRIME minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim said it was ridiculous for anyone to suggest he should wait for a federal lawmaker to die so that he could stand in the by-election.

He was asked whether he should wait for a lawmaker to vacate a seat for him or for a PKR leader to die.

“That’s a ridiculous view. It’s not strange if people offer to vacate their parliamentary seat. Let us not pray for someone to die,” Anwar said at PKR’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya today.

“I find it hard to understand this view. I think it’s because (those who hold such view) are not well-versed in politics,” he said.

Anwar said power transitions were normal political processes and that Pakatan Harapan had come to a consensus in January over him succeeding Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in two years’ time.

Outgoing PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had said on Tuesday that many legislators had offered to make way for Anwar.

Although she had made way for Anwar in 2008, Wan Azizah said she would not do so again and would remain Pandan MP and deputy prime minister.

Anwar’s eldest daughter and Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar also said she would not vacate her seat as she had planned programmes for her constituents over the next five years. – August 9, 2018.