JOHOR BARU: The real contest in the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15) is on which parties will emerge strong enough to form a government that benefits the people, says Rafizi Ramli.
The PKR deputy president said the party is unfazed by the prospect of facing its former MPs who jumped ship, but this was not the narrative the party wanted to focus on.
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"I think those who defected know by now that it (GE14) was not their victory, it was the wave of change desired by the people that got them there.
"I am sure (incumbent MP) Steven Choong would want to contest in Tebrau again but voters are smart enough to know that the real contest is between parties, (to see which ones) can form the government.
"Choong cannot form the government, nor can (Datuk) Zuraida Kamaruddin. At least (Datuk Seri Mohamed) Azmin Ali was slightly smart enough to understand this and did not join this group in Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM)," he told reporters after a ceramah at Taman Gaya in Tebrau on Sunday (Oct 30) night.
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"There was a lot of speculation as to which candidates we will field in the traitors' seats, which is why we announced our candidates earlier to put this matter to rest.
"I don't want to make this election about them, it is about the people. When we assessed who should contest where, it was never about going after (those who jumped).
"If we get carried away with this, we risk annoying the people again," he said.
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In his speech earlier, Razali also told voters not to worry about MPs defecting.
"Not only will they have to give up their seats, PKR has decided that they will also need to pay RM10mil for doing so," he said.
An estimated 200 people attended the roughly four-hour ceramah that was briefly interrupted by a heavy downpour.
Razali quipped that PKR would need to reassess its campaign strategy, particularly on holding ceramah, because of the rainy season.
"This is the first time our ceramah was hit with such heavy rain. We need to go back to the drawing board and take into account that this will happen more often," he told reporters later.
