GE15: Decision not to defend Segamat was mine alone, says Edmund Santhara

Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara Kumar.

JOHOR BARU: Not contesting for the Segamat seat was a personal decision and not politically motivated, says Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara Kumar.

The incumbent Segamat MP said his supporters were informed of his decision days before nomination day.

"I stand by my decision not to compete in the 15th General Election (GE15). This decision is solely mine and is not politically motivated by any parties or segments.

"We have to understand that we cannot stop people from having negative opinions about the decisions made.

"This is Malaysian democracy and it is not wrong to have such opinions since I was one of the many people who stood up for peoples' democracy to be respected and their opinions upheld," he said in a Facebook post on Saturday (Nov 5).

He added that the people of Segamat would be able to compare the services he had provided with the incoming MP.

"This will serve as a cooling off and reset period. The evaluation of the general public will determine my services as an MP for Segamat," he said.

He added that he also did not want to end up splitting votes, which could jeopardise the future of the people of Segamat.

Santhara was among two incumbent MPs from Parti Bangsa Malaysia who would not be defending their seats.

Steven Choong, on Friday (Nov 4) announced that he would not be contesting.

The Segamat parliamentary seat is set to see a four-cornered fight between Barisan-MIC's Tan Sri M. Ramasamy, PKR's R. Yuneswaran, Bersatu associate wing's P. Poobalan and Pejuang's Syed Hairoul Faizey Syed Ali.

In the 14th General Election (GE14), Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara Kumar, who was then in PKR, won the seat with a 5,476 majority against MIC's Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam and PAS's Khairul Faizi Ahmad Kamil.