PETALING JAYA: Former PKR vice-president Tian Chua and four others have been officially axed by PKR for standing against the party in the 15th General Election (GE15) and the Sarawak state election.
However, PKR secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said Chua has 14 days to appeal against the decision.
Earlier, the party’s disciplinary board chairman Datin Paduka Dr Tan Yee Kew said the decision to sack the five was taken at the party’s central leadership committee meeting on Saturday night.
“There’s no other punishment but sacking,” she said when contacted yesterday.
Tan said the disciplinary board had scrutinised several other cases concerning infractions of party rules made during the elections.
“Some committed other offences that require disciplinary action. These offences have nothing to do with this category (of standing against the party),” she added.
When contacted, Chua, who is a former Batu MP, said he will issue a statement in response to his sacking.
Speaking to reporters after inspecting operations at KL International Airport yesterday, Saifuddin said he was confident that Chua would take advantage of the appeal process.
In GE15 last November, Chua stood as an Independent candidate against PKR’s P. Prabakaran in Batu, which saw a record field of 10 contestants.
Chua lost his deposit in this election while Prabakaran succeeded in defending the parliamentary seat.
Chua was the Batu MP from 2008 to 2018 but was disqualified from contesting on nomination day of GE14 due to a RM2,000 fine imposed on him by the Shah Alam High Court.
PKR then backed Prabakaran, then an Independent candidate. Following his victory, Prabakaran joined PKR.
On Nov 6, 2019, the High Court ruled that Chua in fact did not lose his eligibility and could contest in any election.
Meanwhile, the other four sacked by PKR were division leaders in Perak – Puah Chee Haur from Parit Buntar, M. Mohganan from Taiping and Ahmad Tarmizi Ghazali from Gopeng – and in Sarawak, Nur Khairunisa Abdullah from Sadong Jaya.
Nur Khairunisa stood as a Parti Sarawak Bersatu candidate in last year’s state election while Mohganan contested the Taiping parliamentary seat as an Independent in GE15.
Ahmad Tarmizi and Puah were fielded by Parti Warisan in Chenderiang and Keranji state seats respectively during GE15.
