KUALA LUMPUR: PAS has confirmed that it has nominated one of its assemblymen for the Selangor menteri besar post.

Party secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali was quoted by Harakahdaily as saying that the party had submitted the names of two candidates from PKR and a third from its own ranks.

He declined to name the candidates it had nominated but it is learnt that the candidates were PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali and Selangor PAS commissioner Iskandar Abdul Samad.

Mustafa said the party had given the names of three candidates as the palace had asked for more than two names.

“So we sent more than two names,” he said. The names were sent on Wednesday.

The PAS central committee, at a meeting on Aug 17, decided to support Dr Wan Azizah and her deputy Azmin as candidates for the Selangor MB post.

The palace, however, sent an official letter to PKR, PAS and DAP decreeing that more than two names should be submitted by Sept 3. The letter was addressed to the PKR president and copies were also sent to the PAS president and DAP secretary-general.

It was specifically stated in the letter that the candidate should be a Malay who is a practising Muslim.

However, both PKR and DAP maintained their stand of only submitting Dr Wan Azizah’s name as a candidate.

A day before the letter was issued, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah had deferred the resignation of Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. The postponement was until a new MB is appointed.

The Sultan of Selangor had instructed the three Pakatan coalition partners to submit more names for his perusal. — The Malaysian Insider


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 5, 2014.