GE15: Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri will not defend her seat

GEORGE TOWN: Kasthuri Patto will not defend her Batu Kawan seat in the 15th General Election (GE15), after serving for two terms since 2013.

Describing this as the hardest decision she ever had to make, Kasthuri said she was stepping down gracefully to make way for future leaders in the party and the country.

"DAP will always be family to me, my mother Mary Patto, my sister Shalini Anne and my husband Alain Morgan who has been a rock and confidante in this tumultuous time," she said during a press conference at the DAP headquarters here at Jalan Rangoon on Thursday (Oct 20).

Kasthuri said that the party leadership tried to persuade her to rethink her decision.

However, she said after much thought, she stuck with her decision and has received blessings from the leadership.

She denied that she was being dropped by the party and that the decision was made on her own accord.

On her future plans, Kasthuri said she would continue to fight for human rights, abolition of the death penalty, criminalising child marriages, gender inclusivity, civil liberties and social justice on a different platform as these has been close to her heart and also the principles of the party.

The daughter of the late P. Patto won the seat in 2013 with a majority of 25,962 votes.

She went on to retain the seat with a bigger majority of 33,553 votes in the 2018 General Election.

She is currently the DAP deputy secretary for international affairs and was elected as president of the Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) last December.

She is also part of the Steering Group for the International Panel of Parliamentarians for the Freedom of Religion and Belief.