FORMER Negri Sembilan menteri besar Mohamad Hasan today indicated that he was not interested in fighting Anwar Ibrahim for the Port Dickson parliamentary by-election, suggesting that a local be picked instead for the contest.

Mohamad, who is Umno deputy president, said he would rather focus on fighting a petition to nullify his election as the Rantau state rep in the May general election.

“This is not a game. I need to focus on a possible by-election in my own state seat,” he told The Malaysian Insight today.

He said Barisan Nasional would decide on its candidate for Port Dickson after considering the views from the leaders.

But first, he said, BN would decide whether or not it would contest the seat.

“Let the BN supreme council meet first. If we want to contest, we will also have to decide which party should be given the mandate to take up the fight.

“If we place an unpopular candidate, it will be difficult for us. And a local candidate must also have credibility,” he said.

The Port Dickson parliamentary seat was today vacated by Danyal Balagopal Abdullah of PKR, who stepped down to enable incoming PKR president Anwar to make a comeback in Parliament.  

Mohamad is in the middle of a legal battle with Dr S. Streram, the PKR candidate for the Rantau state seat, who has filed to get the Election Court to nullify its declaration of Mohamad as the winner in the May 9 general election.

Mohamad won the seat unopposed after the returning officer refused to allow Dr Streram into the nomination centre because he did not have a valid pass.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin, meanwhile, supported the idea of a local candidate representing BN against Anwar in Port Dickson.

In a Twitter post, the former Umno Youth chief suggested Rahman Redza as the candidate.

Linggi is one of five state seats under the Port Dickson parliamentary constituency.

In GE14, Danyal defeated BN’s VS Moghan from MIC and PAS’ Mahfus Roslan with a majority of 17,710 votes.

The Port Dickson seat, formerly known as Teluk Kemang, is traditionally contested by MIC. PKR has held this seat for three terms. –  September 12, 2018.