PARTI Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) has announced that it will contest the October 13 Port Dickson by-election.

PRM president Mohd Hashim Saaludin said the party will challenge PKR for the seat even though that means going up against prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim.

“The plan is to challenge PKR. So far, we have three candidates on the shortlist. We will meet after this to decide who to send to Port Dickson.

“We will announce the chosen candidate in due time,” he told a press conference in Prai, Penang, today.

Hashim is among the shortlisted trio, with the party declining to reveal the other two names.

He said the main issue is not whether PRM is able to win the Negri Sembilan parliamentary seat, but rather, it is about using the by-election as a platform on which to raise issues that affect the people, such as the prices of goods, welfare and economic stability.

He said PRM, as “a true opposition party that defends the people’s rights”, does not fear defeat.

“Our role is to provide checks and balances. Since Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government, there has been economic and political instability.

“Ministers have announced policies without carrying out proper studies and taking into consideration the people’s views. As a result, there have been many U-turns.”

Hashim cited as examples the announcement by Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran, that foreigners are not allowed to work as cooks in Malaysia, and the flip-flop on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail project.

“We want to be part of this by-election to raise issues and remind the PH government to deliver on its manifesto promises.”

PRM contested in Penang, Kedah and Selangor in the 14th general election, but did not win a single seat.

The Port Dickson seat was won by PKR’s Danyal Balagopal Abdullah in the May 9 elections. He vacated the seat for president-elect Anwar, paving the way for the latter’s return to Parliament before replacing Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister.

Others who have expressed their intention to contest the by-election are former MIC secretary-general G. Kumar Aamaan and Stevie Chan Keng Leng.

Chan is a Twitter personality with the handle @tapaimalaya.

It was reported that he previously used the handle @youtiup, and had been investigated for posting seditious tweets.

Port Dickson has 75,212 voters, with 42% of them Malays, Chinese (33%) and Indians (22%). They are spread across five state constituencies, namely Chuah, Lukut, Bagan Pinang, Sri Tanjung and Linggi.

Port Dickson has been a PKR-held seat since 2008, when it was known as Teluk Kemang. The name change followed a redelineation exercise.

Danyal won the seat with 36,225 votes, beating Barisan Nasional’s V. Mogan, of MIC, who got 18,515 votes, and PAS’ Mahfuz Roslan (6,594). – September 21, 2018.