Melaka polls: Norhizam will not be a Pakatan candidate, says Anwar

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan will not field Datuk Norhizam Hassan Baktee as one of its candidates in the Melaka state election, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The Opposition leader said Pakatan had listened to views about the four former assemblymen who triggered the collapse of the Melaka state government and said that the people's interests were more important than that of an individual.

"As they are not members of any of Pakatan's component parties, the question of their candidacy did not arise during the meeting.

"However, the presidential council has decided that Norhizam will not be a Pakatan candidate in the Melaka state polls," said the PKR president in a statement on Thursday (Oct 21).

Norhizam had said that he would defend his Pengkalan Batu seat as a PKR candidate and claimed that the party's top leadership had accepted him.

"PKR feels I am priceless," he had claimed.

Norhizam was the Melaka DAP deputy chairman when he defected to the Barisan Nasional/Perikatan Nasional-led state government in March last year.

He then left the ruling state government along with three other assemblymen last month, leading to the dissolution of the state assembly and a state election being set for Nov 20.

The three assemblymen – Datuk Seri Idris Haron and Nor Azman Hassan, both from Umno, as well as former Parti Bersatu Pribumi Malaysia member Noor Effandi Ahmad – were reportedly vying to contest in the Melaka election as Pakatan candidates.

The Pakatan presidential council also agreed to appoint former Melaka Pakatan chief and former chief minister Adly Zahari to lead its election machinery for the state polls.

The council also agreed to send representatives to discuss and meet the Election Commission (EC) regarding the standard operating procedures for the polls.